Her eyes suddenly flamed with shame. She drooped them before his gaze and seemed to try to assent, but her head was drooped too low to bow. She lifted miserable pleading looks to his face twice, but could not stand the clear rebuke of his gaze. It was like the whiteness of the reproach of God, and her little sinful soul could not bear it. She lifted a handkerchief and uttered something like a sob. It was as one might think would be the sound of a lost soul looking back at what might have been. "What the devil have you got to say about it? Who the devil _are_ you, anyway?" roared the man from the doorway. The elevator-boy and clerk were all agog. The latter had come out of his pen and was standing behind the boy, on tiptoe, where they could get a good view of the scene. The room was tense with stillness. Aquilar's voice was not one to pass unnoticed when he spoke in anger, but Courtland did not even lift an eyelid toward him. Perhaps Aquilar's words had given Gila courage, for she suddenly lifted her eyes to Courtland's face again, a flash of vengeance in them: "I suppose you are going to tell Lew all about it?" she flung out, bitterly. "I suppose you will make up a great story to go and tell Lew. But you don't suppose he will believe _you_ against _me_, do you?" Her eyes were flashing fire now. Her old imperious manner was upon her. She had driven him from her once! She would defeat him again! He watched her without a change of countenance. "No, I shall not tell him," he said, quietly; "but _you will_!" "I?" Gila turned a glance of contemptuous amusement upon him. "Some chance! And I warn you that if you attempt to tattle anything about it I will turn, the tables against you in a way you little suspect." "Gila, you will tell Lew Tennelly _everything_, or you will never marry him! It is his right to know! And now, sir"--Courtland turned to Aquilar, lounging amusedly against the doorway--"if you will step outside I will _settle with you_!" But suddenly Gila gave a scream and covered her face with her hands, for there, just behind Aquilar, stood Tennelly, looking like a ghost. He had heard it all! CHAPTER XXXI Tennelly stepped within the room, gave one keen, questioning look at Aquilar as he passed him, searching straight into the depths of his startled, shifty eyes, and came and stood before the crouching girl. She had dropped into a chair and was sobbing as if her heart would break. "What does this mean, Gila?" Tennelly's voice was cold and stern.