The Soul Stealer

our and occasion were too serious for that, and she herself was too broken down for any emotions save those that were

she said in a low vo

He heard, with an inward thrill and leap of the pulses, an immense respec

attainments, never had she seemed

gaze. The frightful power of his dominating will, the horrible strength of his desir

bly stained by the most merciless perfidy, was yet able to l

who had committed a crime as foul and sinister as ever crime was yet, the man who was responsible for the pale face of the girl h

stances are, we cannot thank you enough for what you have done and are doing. No one else in your po

lliam

rtainly very delicate, almost unparalleled, indeed, and it was certainly quite outside even her wide experience. But her voice h

Poole, by an intuition, said and did exactly the right thing-perhaps old Sir Freder

and in your presence here. Then let me say once and for all, that both Marjorie and I feel at last we have got some one with us who will help us. We have been terribly alone. We have both felt it

tle of what you mean. I am not sure, but I think I do. And I regard it as the greatest p

to the you

u must forget all that has passed between us, and just lean on me,

ness, new hopes and ambitions were not reviving? Lady Poole was a woman, and she was an opportunist too. Woman-like, her mind moved fast into a

blame La

are that it's not the correct thing to do, but that is speaking only from a conventional standpoint, and none of us here can be conventional at a moment like this. If you would rather ha

ough smil

e said. "But I know that Marj

ing which was almost like reverence. Never before had he seen her look at him like this

Regent's Park were even now perfecting, came to trouble that moment of evil pride. Everybody had always said, e

nd finding that there was none, for Marjorie was standing with drooping head and made no mo

nd Marjorie w

action asse

erfectly true to both the spirit and actual words of that communication. That's all we need say now, except just this: I loved you dearly and I love you dearly now. I had hoped that we might have been very happy together and that I might have spent my life in your service. But that was not to be in the way that I

t only of regret for her lost lover, but it had the same n

, I have treated you horribly badly. Y

e seems to have been wiped out of ordinary life. My business is to find him again for you, so that you may be happy. I have been trying to do the utmost in my power for days. I have done everything that my mind could sugge

o think. I can't understand it. I am lost in utter darkness. There seems no possible reason why he should hav

t w

en." She did not see the tall man who sat before her wince and quiver. She did not see his face change and contort itself into malignancy. S

forgive me for saying so. People don't go about injuring other people because they are better-looking or h

w what I'm saying, the pain of it all is so great. But then, there is no

truth. I have been in communication with every force or agency which might be able

her chair, her p

d, "What is it?

Sir William remained sitting in

he answered; "I didn

ery keen, and there was something in your voice wh

swered in a deep

she had detected, the note of an inner knowledge when he had first spoken. She

And her touch thrilled him through and throug

hing," he

lliam," she said, "I know you so well, you can't hide anything from me. There's som

er, and his face, she saw

nce you ask me I must say what I have got to say. But mind you, I am in no way con

ed, and her voice hiss

r a friend of poor Eustace Charliewood. I like Charliewood; you never did. A man's point of view and a girl's point of view are quite different

ith a shudder of dis

Charliewood is a man who has some rather strange acquaintances, especially in the theatrical world. That is to

she cried

irl really knows what the life of a young man really is or may be. I know that Charliewood intr

her full height, and then in a moment she droop

this or that, and then testifying to his utter disbelief in the suspicions that he himself had provoked. She listened

be so unutterably cruel, so unutterably base. I have made you tell me this, William, and I know that you

Sir Wil

n't know him. Marjorie, no living man could leave y

put the thing in plain language, and

" she said between her sobs. "Go