She had no answer for him only an irrepressible moan of pain that broke uncontrollably over her white lips. Her thoughts went back to poor, patient, badgered Elaine, and her hard life at Bay View--harder now than ever, she guessed, since her father was dead, and she was left to the tender mercies of her mother and sister. "Dear mother, how gladly I would purchase this man's knowledge, even at the bitter price he asks, for your dear sake, if only it were possible," she thought to herself with a pang like death at her heart, as she recalled her fatal marriage. Julius Revington, watching the mute anguish on her speaking face, saw that it was no time to press the question. "Do not answer me now, Irene," he said, with ready gentleness. "Take time to think it over. Revolve it in your mind to-night in soberness and calmness. Ask yourself if you do not owe this duty to your poor, wronged mother. How sweet it would be for her child to restore to her all she has lost." "You are cruel and calculating," she said, indignantly. "Why should you ask such a costly price for doing this kindness to my poor, martyred mother?" "Because I love you, and in no other way can I win you," he answered, boldly. Her beautiful eyes flashed scornfully upon him. "Would you take a reluctant and unloving bride?" she asked. "I would take you on any terms, Irene," he replied. She looked up at him and asked the strangest question that could possibly fall from a daughter's lips: "Mr. Revington, will you tell me the name of my father?" The piteous sadness of the tone, and the pathos of the question must have touched the heart of a better man. But Julius Revington was thoroughly hard and selfish. "You have never heard his name, then?" he said. "Never," she replied. "Will you tell it to me now?" "Not yet," he replied, cruelly. "I will reserve that pleasant bit of information for our marriage day." She flashed a sudden, piercing glance upon him. "You are deceiving me," she said. "You are trying to win me by a pretended knowledge of facts that do not exist." "On my honor, no," he replied. "I admit that I am selfish, and that I am using the knowledge I possess to gain my own ends, but on the morning that you give me your hand in marriage I swear that I will place in your hands the documents that will prove your mother a lawfully-wedded wife, and give you a legal right to your father's name and wealth. Moreover, I assure you that no one will be more surprised or rejoiced than your father himself on learning the truth." "And what if I refuse to marry you? she asked, fearfully.