Marion Arleigh's Penance - Everyday Life Library No. 5 by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Monica) Brame
page 67 of 95 (70%)
page 67 of 95 (70%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
"Then I will teach you how to make money of this affair. Write tomorrow, tell her you have received her letter, but that you must always love her, and that you shall hold her to her promise of being your wife. The chances are that she will not answer that letter, and that for a time there will be silence between you. Then," she continued, "my advice to you is this: wait until she marries. You cannot marry her now, she will never be willing, but you can make a very decent fortune out of her when she is married." "In what way?" he asked. "Hold those letters as a rod over her, threaten to bring an action against her--she will never know that such an action cannot stand; or if that does not do, threaten to show them to her husband. Rather than let him know, rather than let Lord and Lady Ridsdale know, she will give you thousands of pounds." Allan Lyster for one-half moment shrank from his sister. "It seems so very bad," he said. "Not at all. She will have more money than she can count; you have a right to some of it. Of course, you will never really tell, but why not make what you can out of it? She would not even miss a thousand a year and see what one thousand alone would do for you." So it was settled--the fiendish plan that was to torture an innocent woman until she was driven to shame and almost death. He wrote the letter. Marion received it with silent disdain; she had told him that it |
|