"
Brought face to face with great danger, mental or physical, the majority
of people rise to the call. Priscilla knew now that she was in grave
peril--peril of a deeper kind than even her tormentor could realize.
Every nerve and emotion came to her defence. She would hold this creature
at bay as hunters hold the wild things of the woods when gun or club
fail. Then, after that, she would have to deal with what must inevitably
confront her at home. She seemed to be standing alone amid cruel and
unfamiliar foes, but she was calm!
"You lied, then? What for?"
"What do you think?"
"You believe, by shutting me away from everything, every one, you can win
what otherwise you could not get?" It all seemed cruelly plain, now. She
felt she had always known it.
"Something like that, yes. You'll come to me fast enough, after to-night.
Once you come I'll--I'll do the fair and square thing by you, Priscilla."
The half-pleading caught the girl's thought.
"You mean, by this device you will make me marry you? You'll blacken
my name, bar my father's house to me, and then you will be generous
and--marry me?"
[Illustration: "'You mean, by this device you will make me marry you?
You'll blacken my name, bar my father's house to me, and then you will be
generous and--marry me?'"]
Jerry-Jo dropped his bold, dark eyes.
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