first!"

He laughed. There was something in his eyes--something intolerable--that
made her avert her own in spite of herself. In desperation she glanced
around for Violet.

"She is asleep," said Hunt-Goring.

She turned on him then like a fury. "You mean you have drugged her!" she
cried.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Not to that extent. You can wake her if you
wish, but I think you had better hear me out first--for her sake also.
It is better for all parties that we should come to a clear
understanding."

With immense effort she controlled herself. "Very well. What do you wish
me to understand?"

"Simply this," said Hunt-Goring. "I know very well that your engagement
to Wyndham was simply a move in the game, and that you have not the
faintest intention of marrying him. That is so, I think?"

She was silent, taken by surprise.

"I thought so," he continued. "You see, I am not so easy to hoodwink.
And now I am going to act up to my villain's _rôle_ and break that
engagement of yours--which is no engagement. To put it quite shortly and
comprehensibly--I am going to marry you myself."