at last. She seemed to feel it pressing on her throat. "You are
not--to kiss me," she managed to say.

He frowned at the condition, but he conceded it. The game was so
nearly his that he could afford to be generous. Besides, he would
exact payment in full later for any little concessions she wrung
from him now.

"I'm bein' awfully patient," he said pathetically. "I hope you'll
take that into account. You really might just as well give in
first as last."

But Sylvia had given in, and she knew it. Nothing but a miracle
could save her now. The only loophole she had for herself was one
which she realized already was highly unlikely to serve her. She
had been practically forced into submission, and she did not
attempt to disguise the fact from herself.

Yet if only Guy had not failed her, she knew that no power on earth
would have sufficed to move her, no clamour of battle could ever
have made her quail. That had been the chink in her armour, and
through that she had been pierced again and again, till she was
vanquished at last.

She felt too weary now, too utterly overwhelmed by circumstances,
to care what happened. Yes, she would cable to Guy as she had
said. But her confidence was gone. She was convinced already that
no word would come back in answer out of the void that had
swallowed him,