even possible that I married you for love. To be frank, I did nothing
of the sort; I married you because you were the person most suited to
my purpose. If you will only understand that it will save us both a
great deal of trouble. As for your talk about asserting yourself and
exercising your authority, it is simple nonsense. You are very well in
your way, my dear John, and a fair attorney, but do you suppose for
one moment that you are capable of matching yourself against me? If
so, you make a shocking mistake. Be advised, and do not try the
experiment. But don't think that the bargain is all my side--it is
not. If you will behave yourself properly and be guided by my advice,
I will make you one of the richest and most powerful men in the
county. If you will not, I shall shake myself free of you as soon as I
am strong enough. Rise I must and will, and if you will not rise with
me, I will rise alone. As regards your complaints of my not caring
about you, the world is wide, my dear John; console yourself
elsewhere. I shall not be jealous. And now I think I have explained
everything. It is so much more satisfactory to have a clear
understanding. Come, shall we go to lunch?"

But Bellamy wanted no lunch that day.

"After all," he soliloquized to himself, between the pangs of a
racking headache brought on by his outburst of temper, "time sometimes
brings its revenges, and, if it does, you may look out, Mrs. Bellamy."



CHAPTER XV

It is perhaps time that the reader should know a little of the ancient