Trembling with a vague apprehension, she sped by a path that was seldom used down to the brook-side.
"True to your tryst!" said a well-known voice. "Fairest, cleverest of women, how can I thank you enough for your promptness?"
She stood still, cold as marble, her face ghastly white in the flickering light of the stars.
"Have you no word for me?" he cried, with a harsh, derisive laugh. "Have you no smile, no kiss, no kind word? Have you nothing to say to me? You have no love, no light of welcome in your eyes, and yet you loved me so dearly once, my sweet Ida? Do you remember? And now----"
"You mocking demon!" she panted, "how dare you utter such words to me? I wonder you are not afraid that Heaven will strike you dead where you stand!"
"Heaven strike me dead?" he repeated. "What a horrible idea! Afraid? Oh, no, my dear. You are the first charming creature I ever saw who flew into such a rage because her husband was pleased to be sentimental to her."
He heard her draw her breath hard. She stood before him white and trembling, her eyes filled with burning fire.
"Say, Ida, couldn't you manage somehow to get the rest of the money--the five thousand?"
"That's only a bluff," he cried. "But it won't work with me!"
"You have sworn eternal silence _now_!" she cried; "you have given your oath, and you dare not break it. I can not raise any more money!"
"Perhaps you will pay that amount for a little secret which I possess, my lady," he said, mockingly.
"There is nothing more you could tell me that would interest me."
He pulled from under his coat a dark-lantern, shot back the slide, and a flood of light illumined the scene. He drew a package from his pocket and unwrapped it. Ida watched him like one in a dream.
Suddenly an awful cry broke from her lips. One by one he took from the package the articles of clothing that had been worn by the little child he had secured from the village merchant's wife.
"I suppose, Ida, it isn't the proper thing to keep a person in suspense," he cried. "You deserted your little child--never once sought to discover whether it were dead or alive. By the merest chance, I ran across it lately. I took possession of it, and I have it now."
"I can not, I will not believe you," she answered, quickly.
