As his head was turned away, he did not notice the strange glint in her eyes. For a single instant the fierce fire of hatred burned there, but in a moment it had vanished, and she was once more the same calm, persuasive woman as throughout the conversation she had been. "But your position is really not so serious as you imagine," she declared. "If you will only place confidence in me I can help you ever so much. Indeed, I anticipate that, if I so wish, I can rescue you from the exposure and ruin that threatens you." "You?" he cried incredulously. "How can you hope to rescue me?" he demanded sharply, taking a step toward her in his eagerness to know what the answer to his question would be. "By means known only to myself," she said, watching him with panther-like intensity. She had changed her tactics. "From your words it would appear that my future is to be controlled in most respects by you, Miss Mortimer," he observed with a slight touch of sarcasm in his hard voice. "You have spoken correctly. It is." "And for what reason, pray?" he inquired, frowning in his perplexity. "Because I alone know the truth, Mr. Chisholm," she said distinctly. "I am aware of the secret of your sin. All of these hideous facts are in my possession." He started violently, glaring at her open-mouthed, as though she were some superhuman monstrosity. "You believe that I am lying to you, but I declare that I am not. I am in full possession of the secret of your sin, even to its smallest detail. If you wish, I will defend you, and show you a means by which you can defy those who are seeking to expose you. Shall I give you proof that I am cognisant of the truth?" He nodded in the affirmative, still too dumbfounded to articulate. Moving suddenly she stepped forward to the table, took up a pen, and wrote two words upon a piece of paper, which she handed to him in silence. He grasped it with trembling fingers. No sooner had his eyes fallen upon it than a horrible change swept over his countenance. "My God! Yes!" he gasped, his face blanched to the lips. "It was that name. Then you really know my terrible guilt. You--a comparative stranger!" "Yes," she answered. "I know everything, and can yet save you, if you will place your trust in me--even though I am little more than a stranger." "And if I did--if I allowed you to strive on my behalf? What then?" She looked straight at him. The deep silence of the night was again broken by the musical chimes high up in the ancient turret. "Shall I continue to speak frankly?" she asked at last. "Most certainly. In this affair there can be no concealment between us, Miss Mortimer, for it seems that my future is entirely in your hands." "It is," she answered, in a deep, intense voice. "And in return for my silence and defence of yourself I make one condition." "And that is?"