Dr. Oleander was not deficient in a certain dog-like courage and daring. He saw his position in a moment--saw that denial would be utterly useless. His own mother would prove against him it if came to law. There was but one avenue of escape for him--he saw it like a flash of light. Mollie would not dare publish this story of hers for her own sake, and neither would Carl Walraven for his wife's. "He does not deny it!" cried Mollie. "He dare not. Look at his changing face. He carried me off and held me a prisoner in his mother's house, and gave out I was mad. And that is not the worst he has done. I might overlook that, now that I have safely escaped--" Dr. Oleander suddenly interrupted her. "That is the very worst--and you dare not publish it, even to punish me." "What!" exclaimed the young lady, "do you deny your other tenfold greater crime--the compulsory marriage performed by the Reverend Raymond Rashleigh? Oh, if there be law or justice in the whole country, you shall suffer for that!" "I do deny it," said the doctor, boldly. "You are no wife of mine by compulsion or otherwise. That story was trumped up to deceive you the second time." Mollie's heart gave one great throb, and then seemed to stand still. Mrs. Walraven turned, ghastly with fear and rage, upon her cousin. "Guy Oleander, are you mad? What are you saying?" "The truth, Blanche. It is too late for any other alternative now. Don't fear--Mr. Walraven will hardly allow his ward to prosecute his wife." "Traitor and coward!" Blanche Walraven cried in fierce scorn. "I wish my tongue had blistered with the words that urged you on." "I wish it had," returned the doctor, coolly. "I wish, as I often have wished since, that I had never listened to your tempting. It was your fault, not mine, from first to last." It was the old story of Adam and Eve over again: "The woman tempted me, and I did eat." "'When rogues fall out, honest men get their own.' You mean to say, Doctor Oleander, that Mrs. Walraven instigated you on?" "How else should I know?" answered the doctor. "She overheard you telling the woman Miriam, in your chamber, the whole story. She saw and understood your advertisement and its answer. She concocted the whole scheme, even to advancing the hands of your watch half an hour. If the law punishes me, Miss Dane, it must also punish your guardian's wife." "Coward! coward!" Blanche furiously cried. "Oh, basest of the base! If I only had the power to strike you dead at my feet!" The doctor bore the onslaught quietly enough. "Heroics are all very well, Blanche," he said; "but self-preservation is the first law of nature. Confession is the only avenue of escape, and I have taken it. Besides, justice is justice. You deserve it. You goaded me on. It was your fault from beginning to end." "And you own, then, you are not the man who carried me off before?" said Mollie. "You are not the man Mr. Rashleigh married?"