life was not long enough for sacrifice--that the future to which
she looked was but a mirage which she would never reach.

It all flashed through her brain in a few short seconds, vivid,
dazzling, overwhelming, and the memory of Kieff went with it--Kieff
and his cold, sinister assertion that she held Guy's destiny
between her hands.

Then, very softly, Guy spoke. "To please--you?" he said.

She answered him, but it was scarcely of her own volition. She was
as one driven--"Yes--yes!"

He looked at her closely as if to make sure of her meaning. Then,
with a quick, reckless movement, he turned and set down the bottle
on the table.

"That settles that," he said boyishly. "Go ahead, Kelly! Drink!
Don't mind me! I am--brandy-proof."

And Sylvia, throbbing from head to foot, knew she had conquered,
knew she had saved him for a time at least from the threatening
evil. But there was that within her which shrank from the thought
of the victory. She had acted almost under compulsion, yet she
felt that she had used a weapon which would ultimately pierce them
both.

She scarcely knew what passed during the interval that followed
before Burke's return. As in a dream she heard Kelly still talking
about the Brennerstadt diamond, and Guy was asking him questions