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Rh in which she had ever held her sister Rose had been transmuted into violent hatred.

And it had been her destiny to learn to love the man who loved her sister and was loved by her in turn.

That she could no longer suffer this state of affairs to endure was the one clear fact on the horizon of her tempestuous soul. The clock was striking six as she left her room; across the street workingmen were about to begin the labours of the day. Brushing past the guard outside the door to Rose's room, Judith turned the key that remained in the lock on the outside, removed it, entered, and locked the door behind her.

Without any surprise she found her sister already dressed to the point of donning her outer garments. Rendered half-frantic by this unexpected interruption, threatening as it did the perilous scheme that Alan had proposed, Rose greeted her sister with a countenance at once aghast and wrathful.

"What do you want?" she demanded. "I insist that you leave this room at once!"

"I may leave this room, and I may not, dear little sister. But one of us will never leave it alive."

"Judith!"

"One moment!" Crossing to a side table, Judith took up a glass from a tray that held a silver water-pitcher, and returned with it to the table that occupied the middle of the floor. At the same time