I want you,
Maxine. I mean to have you--or I will crush you, and now you know I can.
Choose."
I sprang up, and looked at him. Perhaps there was murder in my eyes, as
for a moment there was in my heart, for he exclaimed:
"Tigeress! You would kill me if you could. But that doesn't make me love
you less. Would du Laurier have you if he knew what you are--as he will
know soon unless you let me save you? Yet I--I would love you if you
were a murderess as well as a--spy."
"It is you who are a spy!" I faltered, now all but broken.
"If I am, I haven't spied in vain. Not only can I ruin you with du
Laurier, and before the world, but I can ruin him utterly and in all
ways."
"No--no," I gasped. "You cannot. You're boasting. You can do nothing."
"Nothing to-night, perhaps. I'm not speaking of to-night. I am giving
you time. But to-morrow--or the day after. It's much the same to me. At
first, when I began to suspect that something had been taken from its
place, I had no proof. I had to get that, and I did get it--nearly all I
wanted. This affair of Dundas might have been planned for my advantage.
It is perfect. All its complications are just so many links in a chain
for me.
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