“Yes.  Levinski—­Lily Levinski.  And you wanted to marry me,” she gibed.  “But I fooled you.”

“I guess I—­must be—­out of my head.  I never knew the man—­there were thousands of them; accidents were common.  But—­you say—­” He gathered his whirling thoughts, and, strangely enough, grew calm.  “You say you prayed for a chance to get even—­So, then, you’ve been humbugging—­By God, I don’t believe it!”

“It’s true.  It’s true.  It’s true,” shrilled the girl so hysterically that her voice roused Lorelei, sitting vacant-eyed in the room down the hall, and brought her to her feet with ears suddenly strained.  Lorelei could hear only a part of the words that followed, but the tones of the two voices drew her from her retreat and toward the front of the apartment.

“I went through the gutter, I was a girl of the streets,” Lilas was saying.  “Oh, you’re not the first—­At last I got on the stage and then—­you came.  I knew you; I thought I’d die when you first touched me—­then I figured it all out, and—­you were easy.”

“Go on,” he said, hoarsely.

“You were a bigger fool than I dreamed, but you were old and you didn’t know women.  I knew men, though—­old men especially.”

“You took my money—­you let me support you!” cried Hammon, in bitter accusation.

“Oh, I did more than that.  I planned everything that has happened to you, even that blackmail.”

“Blackmail!” he shouted.  “Did you—­was that your—?” He grew suddenly apoplectic; his eyes distended and reddened with rage.

His dismay delighted her.

“Certainly,” she smiled.  “Half the money is in my bank at this minute—­besides all the rest you’ve given me.  Oh, I’ve got enough to live on without marrying you.  Who do you think put your wife wise and gave her the evidence for her divorce, eh?  Think it over.”

As she watched the effect of her words Lilas felt that her satisfaction was now complete; the man’s slack jaw, his staring, bloodshot eyes convinced her that this moment was all that she had wished it to be.

“You’ll settle with her for a million, and then you’ll settle with me for this.”  She indicated the elaborate apartment with a gesture.  “You think this ends our affair, don’t you?  Well, it doesn’t.  Oh no!  You can’t cast me off.  I’ll drag you through the gutter where you sent me, and you’ll either marry me or—­the courts and the newspapers will get all your letters.  You can’t buy them—­the letters.  I’m rich, understand?  Do you remember those letters?  You were very indiscreet—­and—­do you want me to quote them?  The less said, the better, perhaps.  Your wife will read them and your daughters—­”

Jarvis Hammon roused himself at last.  Surprise, incredulity, dismay gave place to fury, and, as in all primitive natures, his wrath took shape as an impulse to destroy.

“You’ll—­do that—­eh?” His tone, his bearing were threatening.  He advanced as if to seize her in his great hands, and only her quickness saved her.