“I do not remember any young man at Gull Beach who wore glasses.” “Perhaps it was only my fancy that I had seen him before,” Mrs. Fleming answered carelessly, dismissing the subject--in which, indeed, she took but little interest, her anxious fears being centered on the alarming rencounter of Daisie with the Cullens. She was terrified at the thought of her finding out at this late day the wicked part she had played in estranging her from Dallas Bain. And yet she knew that it was possible, and even highly probable, that Daisie might become acquainted with her treachery at no distant day. It had taken a large bribe--no less a price than enough money to marry on and set up housekeeping in New York--to induce Cullen and Letty to carry out the hasty plot she had formed on the night when Royall’s accident had made it possible to summon Daisie to his side and keep her there. Mrs. Fleming had paid the pair a thousand dollars; but she did not regret it, seeing that such success had crowned her efforts. She had succeeded in parting Daisie and Dallas--a glorious triumph for a woman who loved the latter as madly as she did, and she did not despair of meeting him at some future time and winning him yet. In the meantime, it was part of her policy to make friends with Daisie, and, after overcoming the girl’s first natural resentment over the part she had played in marrying her to Royall, she found it easy to do. Poor Daisie was so sad and lonely with her wounded heart, in the midst of her new splendor of wealth and place, that she could not repulse any offered kindness. So an intimacy, if not a real friendship, grew up between the pair, and she was loath to have it broken off now by the risk that confronted her in the attitude of her whilom maid and her rapacious husband. Spoiled by the taste of wealth, the pair had begun a system of blackmail that threatened to bankrupt the lady if permitted to continue. In vain she offered to take both of them back into her employ and pay the most liberal wages; they had grown too high and mighty to work, and intended to be furnished with ample means to pursue a life of idleness and luxury. They threatened to betray the whole thing to Daisie unless she complied with their insistent demands. After a stormy scene this morning with Letty, in which she had been remorselessly mulcted of several hundred dollars, it was most embarrassing to find that Daisie had just met the pair outside, and that only her payment of the money had prevented the injured girl from finding out the whole truth. She knew that Letty would return ere long for more money, and that her persecution would never cease while the pair lived. “Oh, I wish they would drop dead this day! I wish the trolley cars would run them down and kill both the wretches!” she thought vindictively. She was thoroughly frightened and angry, too, at having to lose so much money, and she took a sudden resolution to confess everything to Royall, and get his advice.