Page:The Mystery of Central Park.djvu/207

Rh I never expected any trouble from Lucille.

But I reckoned without my host. Although I endeavored to keep my engagement secret, yet a line to the effect that I was to marry Miss Chamberlain, reached print. Lucille, though hardly in society, always read society notes. She read that one.

She became a tigress—a devil. Isn't it queer that a weak woman always has an ungovernable temper? Expecting nothing more than a few tears from her, I answered carelessly, and she grew infuriated. Of course, I was astonished. She accused me of falseness and demanded that I deny the report over my own name and marry her immediately, or she would seek Miss Chamberlain and lay before her what she pleased to call my baseness.

I was determined to marry.

It meant wealth, a better social position, power, and a wife that at least I would be proud of. I had cherished such an idea of