Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/230

218 keeps you out of money he owes you, and insists upon forcing on my granddaughter money that she does not want, and which will involve her in endless trouble. I think that is quite characteristic of Romaine. Let us now leave this inhospitable house."

Madame de Fonblanque took the arm the Colonel offered her, and walked out of the hall without noticing Mr. Romaine's courteous bow.

The proposition made to Madame de Fonblanque was truly startling. Almost anything on earth was better than marrying him—and what he had whispered to her proved that she could not profit one penny by his death. She would gladly have foregone that offer on paper for some other letters she had in which he flatly refused to keep his word, and which she had held over him in terrorem. She could not determine in a moment what to do, but she was convinced that she could not see Mr. Romaine again, and the matter would have to be settled by correspondence. And then she felt the sooner she got away from this place where she had been checkmated the better. When they were traveling fast through the murky night toward Corbin Hall, she broached the subject