"I fear neither your love nor your hate," Countess Vera answers, dauntlessly. "Perhaps you will pay a heavier ransom for this book than you would have done simply for your freedom--will you not?" "Is the same ransom required?" she asks, regarding him steadily. "Yes." "I would purchase no earthly boon at so terrible a price," Countess Vera answers, shuddering. "Not even title, wealth and power?" he asks, significantly. "All three I can claim already," she answers, with a gesture of unconscious pride. "But if you must lose all without this little talisman?" he inquires, in the same significant tone, and regarding her intently. "I can do without the talisman, as you call it," she answers, coldly. "Before I fell asleep that day, every word of my father's memorandum was fixed in my memory. I have written to Joel McPherson to come to England and establish my identity with that of the girl who was buried alive in Glenwood Cemetery." For a moment Leslie Noble stares blankly at his beautiful opponent, dismayed at her calm declaration. "By Jove! but you are a keen one," he mutters, unable to repress a glance of angry admiration. "You seem to anticipate everything. I did not credit you with such a ready brain. And so you have written to Joel McPherson?" "Yes," she answers, with a little note of triumph in her voice. "Yes, and I have written to a friend of mine in Washington to keep the sexton of Glenwood out of the way by force, or fraud, or bribe; you will never see him in England until he comes by my will," he answers, insolently. Coldly disdainful, she makes him no reply. "Do you know what will happen to you if you continue to defy me?" he goes on, angrily. "Raleigh Gilmore is about to begin a suit against you. His aim is to prove you an impostor. Mrs. Cleveland is aiding and abetting him in the endeavor. She hates you so bitterly that she will stop at nothing to drag you down from your high estate. They will succeed, unless Joel McPherson's evidence can be given against them. With the old sexton lies the only real knowledge of that night's mystery, when Vera Campbell was removed from the grave where I myself saw her laid. You alone can never prove that Earl Fairvale's heiress rose from that grave again." He pauses, but her bloodless lips offer no reply. "Admit my rights as your husband, Vera, and I will fight with you and by your side for the grand heritage your father left you. I will summon Joel McPherson to your aid and prove your identity beyond all cavil. Deny me and I swear I will be terribly revengeful for your obstinacy. I will join the ranks of your enemies. I will deny that you are my wife. Your defeat will be certain then. Think of yourself penniless, friendless, branded all over England as an adventuress and impostor."