Would you deem it exaggeration on my part if I said that
I was exceedingly glad of the fact?"
"Mr. Smith," Chris said, earnestly, "I have seen how fond you are of your
daughter."
"That is an exceedingly clever remark of yours, young lady," Rawlins
smiled. "You know that you have found the soft spot in my nature, and you
are going to hammer on it till you reduce me to submission. I am not a
religious man, but my one prayer is that Grace shall never find me out.
When my _coup_ comes off I am going to settle in England and become
intensely respectable."
"With Reginald Henson for your secretary, I suppose?"
"No, I am going to drop the past. But to return to our subject. Are you
asking me to betray Henson to the police?"
"Nothing of the kind," Chris cried, hastily. "I--I would do anything to
avoid a family scandal. All I want is a controlling power over the man."
"The man who bullies women?"
"The same. For seven years he has wrecked the lives of five of us--three
women. He has parted husband and wife, he has driven the man I love into
exile. And the poor wife is gradually going hopelessly mad under his
cruelties.
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