CHAPTER XXXII.

While Miss Chandler sat there complacently waiting for some one to conduct her back to the cell where she had passed the early morning hours, or tell her that the carriage was waiting to take her to her home, an officer in uniform entered, bearing a card. He gave it to her with a ceremony that under other circumstances might have been amusing.

She took it with a loftiness of bearing extremely out of keeping with her unfortunate position, and in the same manner that she might have spoken the words to Leonard Chandler's servant, she said:

"Admit him!"

A moment later Lynde Pyne was shown in.

He came forward with extended hands and kissed her as was his wont.

"I don't know how to express my sympathy for you in a trial like this," he said gently. "It must be horrible!"

"A ghastly sort of mistake," she replied, with a little shuddering laugh intended to be pretty. "I must apologize to you for the absurdity of my dress. Fancy receiving one in the morning in a gown like this."

Pyne gazed at her in absolute amazement. Had she taken leave of her senses that she could deliberately jest under circumstances like those?

"It is nothing!" he stammered. "If you were only out of this your gown would be the last thing that I should think of. How did it happen?"

"I will tell you when we are at home. This room is comfortable enough for ordinary purposes, but I don't like it."

"When--you are--at home?"

"Yes. My father has gone to arrange for my immediate return."

"You mean--Mr. Chandler?"

"Whom else should I mean? Mr. Chandler, to be sure."

"But--there must be some mistake."

"There is a mistake, of course. That goes without saying, when I am an inmate of a prison."

"But--I--mean about Mr. Chandler. The charge against you was made by him ten minutes ago, and signed with his name."

Evelyn Chandler arose slowly from her chair. Every particle of the color had slowly left her cheeks, leaving her ghastly in pallor. She gazed at Pyne as though convinced of his insanity.

"You must be mad," she exclaimed, slowly, the words falling from her lips like lead. "He was here only a few minutes ago, and left me with a promise that he would return at once. You cannot be correct."

"I met him leaving the house, and----"

Before he could finish his sentence she flew to the door and tore it open. The captain met her there.

"Is it true that Leonard Chandler has entered a charge against me?" she demand, her voice sounding like nothing human in its terrible hoarseness.

"Quite true!" returned the captain, with perfect politeness.

"What charge?"

"Grand larceny."

The woman fell back against the casing of the doorway.

She made a curious picture standing there with that expression of hideous agony upon her pallid features, her throat and shoulders bare, her nude arms thrown upward.

There was not a man in the room who did not admire her in spite of the serious charges made against her. Lynde Pyne came to her assistance, and tenderly drew her back into the room, while he closed the door. She raised herself in his arms after a moment of inactivity, like a fiend.

"Let me go there!" she cried, madly. "Let me tell them what he is! He has betrayed me, and publicly in the courtroom I will tell the world what he is. I will pay him for this if it takes my life."

"Calm yourself, dear!" exclaimed Lynde, gently. "There is nothing that you can do against him. Come! You will be summoned to the courtroom in a few minutes for preliminary examination. If you will allow me, I will, of course, act for you; but you must tell me all the evidence there is against you. You must keep nothing from me, for therein lies your only chance. Will you do it, Evelyn?"

She shrunk from him for a moment as though in terror of even the sympathy she read in his eyes; then she sprung forward like a cat and caught him by the arm, lifting her glistening eyes with intense excitement.

"I have your promise that you will marry me!" she cried. "This does not release you. Tell me that is does not?"

His face quivered with the agony that it cost him to speak, but he replied bravely:

"The misfortune of the opposite party never releases one from a promise. I am ready to keep my word when the conditions of our contract shall have expired."

"Then you will do it at once--at once! A will has been found that gives everything your uncle possessed to you. The fortune that millions could not cover is yours, and Leonie is cleared of any complicity in the crime of which she was, in a way, accused. Are you ready to keep your word now?"

"The proofs are not yet in my hands, and even if they were, the fortune to which you refer is not mine. You forget that in the papers which will be brought before the court there will be one showing that my uncle left an heir who can lay a claim before which the strongest will could not stand."

"You mean----"

"I mean the claim of Leonie Cuyler Pyne!"

"And you decline this fortune?"

"Emphatically I do!"

Her eyes glittered like those of a tigress.

"Then you intend to leave me to the fate that that cursed fiend, Leonard Chandler, has prepared for me?" she cried hoarsely. "You intend to allow me to be sent to the penitentiary, thinking that will cancel your promise to me, and leave you free to marry the heiress. That is it, is it?"

"You know that it is not!" exclaimed Lynde almost roughly. "I have no more idea of marrying Miss Pyne than I have of marrying Juno. Don't talk so foolishly. I am ready to do anything within the range of human capability to help you."

"But you can do nothing without money--absolutely nothing. You must take that money or you must see me sent to prison."

"Once for all--I will not do it. Now let that settle it forever. Are there any points that you can give me to assist in your defense? I do not ask you whether you are guilty or not. At least, I shall give the benefit of the doubt----"

"No!" she cried shrilly. "You shall not do even that. The proofs are so strong against me, that if my innocence is proven it must be bought. Witnesses must be purchased. There is no other way. I am guilty! I am guilty of all that and more, but if you don't wish the woman whom you have sworn by a solemn oath to make your wife, an ex-convict when that ceremony is performed, you must accept that money and save me. Leonie knows the truth, Ben Mauprat knows it, that woman, Liz, knows, and the letters that Ben had not the sense to destroy, are against me. How can you prove all those things liars without money?"

"And is there not a single circumstance in your favor?"

"Not one. I have grown honest at last in that I can acknowledge it. Lynde, Lynde, listen to me! I have borne it bravely, but I am not brave. I am the greatest coward under God's heaven. Oh, listen to me and save me! I cannot go there to that prison, and yet there is not a point for my defense. He brought me up in luxury and idleness. I knew nothing but wealth and plenty, so that when that horrible man came, what was I to do? He told me that my father was a forger and my mother a thief. He threatened to make those odious facts known unless I furnished him with the money that he demanded. I knew Leonard Chandler so well that I was convinced that to have him hear the story would be but to have him turn eternally against me. He would not give me the money that was required to buy my father's silence, and my father would not remain quiet without. What was I to do? There was but one course left. I learned the lesson that my parents taught. I was the offspring of thieves, why should I be different from them? Now, Lynde, you know the truth. I have tried my best to appear stony, but I am afraid. What am I to do? Oh, my dear, if you leave me to my fate, I am lost indeed! Lynde, promise that you will not! Swear to me that you will save me! Swear it, Lynde, by----"

"Hush, dear!" he whispered, laying his hand across her mouth as she kneeled there in front of him with her wild eyes raised appealingly. "There is no need of an oath. You may be sure that I shall do for you everything that lies in my power. I will turn heaven and earth to save you!"

"And if you fail," she continued, her teeth chattering horribly, "what then? When I am released from that place, when my life is shadowed by the most awful curse that could befall a mortal, you swear that you will take me away? That you will not forget the promise that you made long ago?"

If she saw the anguish of his face, it was of small moment to her.

"A promise given is for all time, and under all conditions and circumstances to me!" he answered, huskily. "Let us end this scene, Evelyn. I came here to find out what I was to do to assist you, but it seems that I must work in the dark. I may as well tell you frankly that if this is all you have to say, there is little hope. Is----"

Before the sentence could be completed, the officer entered to announce to them that the hour had arrived for her appearance before the judge.

With what calmness he could assume, Lynde lifted her to her feet.