He came slowly towards her. She threw up her hands. "Wait!" she begged, "oh, wait! Listen! I am in your power. I admit it. I will make terms. I will sign anything. What is it that you want? You shall be rich, but you must go away. You must leave me now!" He looked at her steadily and it seemed to her that his eyes were on fire with evil things. "Little wife," he said, with a shade of mockery in his lowered tone. "I cannot do that. Consider how you were snatched from my arms! Consider the cruelty of it. As for the money--bah! I have come to claim my own. Don't you understand, you bewitching little fool? It is you I want! The money can wait! I cannot!" He came nearer still and she shrank, like a terrified dumb thing, against her magnificent dressing-table, with its load of priceless trinkets. She tried to call out, but her voice seemed gone, and he only laughed as he laid his hand over her mouth and drew her gently towards him. With a sudden unnatural strength she wrested herself from his arms. "Oh! listen to me, listen to me for one moment first," she begged frantically. "It's true that I married you, but it was all a plot--and I was a child! You shall have your share of my money! Leave me alone and I swear it! You shall be rich! You can go back to Paris and be an adventurer no longer. You shall spend your own money. You can live your own life!" Even then her brain moved quickly. She dared not speak of Annette, for fear of making him desperate. It was his cupidity to which she appealed. "I am no wife of yours," she moaned. "You shall have more money than you ever had before in your life. But don't make me kill myself! For I shall, if you touch me!" He was so close to her now that his hot breath scorched her cheek. "Is it that another has taken my place?" he asked. "Yes!--no! that is, there is some one whom I love," she cried. "Listen! You know what you can do with money in Paris. Anything! Everything!" He was so close to her now that the words died away upon her lips. "Little wife," he whispered, "don't you understand--that I am a man, and that it is you I want?" Again she tried to scream, but his hand covered her mouth. His arm was suddenly around her. Then he started back with an oath and looked towards the door of her bedroom. "Who is in that room?" he asked quickly. "My maid," she lied. He took a quick step across the room. The door was flung open and Macheson entered. Wilhelmina fainted, but forced herself back into consciousness with a sheer effort of will. Sobbing and laughing at the same time, she tried to drag herself towards the bell, but Jean le Roi stood in the way. Jean le Roi was calm but wicked. "What are you doing in my wife's bedroom?" he asked. "I am here to see you out of the house," Macheson answered, with one breathless glance around the room. "Will you come quietly?" "Out of my own house?" Jean le Roi said softly. "Out of my wife's room? Who are you?"