"Yes, poor child, it is true. Oh, Lord, spare me breath to tell her all the truth! Oh, Miss Precious, you know how foolish I was about my beau that was courting me when your mother sent me off? She was right. He was Lindsey Warwick, but I believed in him. I thought he was Watson Hunter, as he said he was. When I came to Washington I found him out. He was living here, and I taxed him with being the drawing-master, but he denied it. He swore he loved me, and brought a preacher here and married me. At least I thought he was a preacher, Miss Precious, and believed myself an honest wife. Oh, my Lord! my Lord! how my life has been ruined by that devil!" groaning. "Oh, my dearie, my innocent dove, he led me a dog's life, but I stuck to him all the while with devotion, doing everything he bade me, even to blackmailing poor Miss Ethel and stripping her of money for his sake! At last, when I refused to go back again, he beat me cruelly and told me I wasn't his wife. It was a sham, that marriage. He only courted me to find out things about you to get you into his power again, and he would have you soon, for he'd make your sister help him. Then I fell down, dead, I hoped, but after awhile I came to, lying on this bed, ill, and too weak ever to rise from it again, dying by inches of neglect, privation, and despair. And now, my poor, innocent little one, he has got you in his power, and whatever is to become of you I cannot tell." The door opened softly and a mocking voice replied: "I can tell you the end, Hetty. We will get married and live happy ever after." "Lindsey Warwick!" shrieked Precious wildly. CHAPTER XXXV. THE CAPTIVE'S BRAVERY. "Granted the odds are against us, granted we enter the field When Fate has fought and conquered, broken our sword and shield; What then? Shall we ask for quarter or say that our work is done? Nay, rather a greater glory is ours if the field be won!" Lindsey Warwick only smiled at the frantic cry of Precious, and sitting down coolly in a seat quite close to her he said insolently: "So we meet again, my beautiful, obdurate love." Her beautiful blue eyes flashed on him with such supreme scorn that the craven might have quailed before them, but neither her anger nor the hollow, accusing eyes of poor Hetty moved him in the least. He maintained a front of the most insolent composure. "I demand that you release me at once or you will suffer dearly for this outrage!" Precious exclaimed in a choking voice. He smiled, and his insolent eyes seemed to gloat on her pearl-fair beauty. "You amuse me, but you do not frighten me at all," he replied, laughing. "And yet you have need to be frightened," Precious answered in a solemn voice, growing very pale as she spoke. He did not notice the peculiar significance of her voice, but throwing himself back in his chair with an expression of arrogance observed: