"If I were not chained to this couch," she said between her teeth, "I should go after her and throw vitriol in her face. I would give her cause to repent having lured you from me with her miserable doll's face. Pah! the minx!" Cuthbert grew really angry. "How dare you speak like this?" he said. "If you were able to attack Miss Saxon in the vile way you say, I should show you no mercy." "What would you do--what would you do?" she panted. "Put you in jail. That sort of thing may do abroad but we don't allow it here. I thought you were merely a foolish woman. Now I know you are bad and wicked." "Cuthbert--Cuthbert." "My name is Mallow to you, Senora Gredos. I'll go now and never see you again. I was foolish to come here." "Wait--wait," she cried savagely, "it is just as well that you are here--just as well that we should come to an understanding." "There can be no understanding. I marry Miss Saxon and--" "Never, never, never! Listen, I can ruin her--" "What do you mean?" "Her brother--" "Oh, Basil, I know all about that." Maraquito threw herself back on her couch, evidently baffled. "What do you know?" she demanded sullenly. "That you are about to accuse him of the death of Miss Loach." "Yes, I do. He killed her. There is a forged bill in--" "I know all about that also," said Cuthbert, making a gesture for her to be silent. "If you hope to stop my marriage with Miss Saxon by such means, you have wasted your time," he moved again towards the door. "It is time this interview ended," he said. "Why did you seek it then?" she flashed out. "I did not. Jennings wrote, asking me to call and see you. I understood that you had something to say to me." "I have much--though how that detestable man knew I can't think. But I can disgrace that doll of a girl through her brother." "No, you cannot. Basil is perfectly innocent of murder." "You have to prove that," she sneered, her features quivering and one white hand clutching the purple drapery, "and you know--so you say, that Basil is a forger." "He is a fool. I don't condone his folly, but his sister shall not suffer on his account. The bill to which Miss Loach's name was forged is in the possession of Miss Saxon--in fact I may tell you that Basil himself assured me it had been destroyed." "Of course he would say that," scoffed Maraquito, her eyes flashing, "but the check to which Hale's name is affixed is not destroyed, and Hale shall proceed on that." "Hale shall not do so," said Cuthbert resolutely. He did not wish to betray Hale's confidence, as a confession would entail the man's loss of the woman he loved. But it was necessary to stop Maraquito somehow; and Cuthbert attempted to do so in his next words, which conveyed a distinct threat. "And you will not move in the matter."