He gave the message:  and Lucy, meanwhile, stood in the middle of the room, twisting her hands together nervously.

“Now, Allan, go downstairs,” she said; “wait for me there.”  And after another glance at the broken figure of Ryder, he took his hat and coat and obeyed.

Montague spent his time pacing back and forth in the entrance-hall.  The cab arrived, and a minute later Lucy appeared, wearing a heavy veil.  She went straight to the vehicle, and sprang in, and Montague followed.  She gave the driver the address of Waterman’s great marble palace over by the park; and the cab started.

Then suddenly she turned upon Montague, speaking swiftly and intensely.

“I know what you are going to say,” she cried.  “But you must spare me—­and you must spare yourself.  I am sorry that you should have to know this—­God knows that I could not help it!  But it cannot be undone.  And there is no other way out of it.  I must go to him, and try to save Ryder!”

“Lucy,” he began, “listen to me—­”

“I don’t want to listen to you,” she cried wildly—­almost hysterically.  “I cannot bear to be argued with.  It is too hard for me as it is!”

“But think of the practical side of it!” he cried.  “Do you imagine that you can stop this huge machine that Waterman has set in motion?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know!” she exclaimed, choking back a sob.  “I can only do what I can.  If he has any spark of feeling in him—­I’ll get down on my knees to him, I will beg him—­”

“But, Lucy! think of what you are doing.  You go there to his house at night!  You put yourself into his power!”

“I don’t care, Allan—­I am not afraid of him.  I have thought about myself too long.  Now I must think about the man I love.”

Montague did not answer, for a moment.  “Lucy,” he said at last, “will you tell me how you have thought of yourself in one single thing?”

“Yes, yes—­I will!” she cried, vehemently.  “I have known all along that Waterman was following me.  I have been haunted by the thought of him—­I have felt his power in everything that has befallen us.  And I have never once told Ryder of his peril!”

“That was more a kindness to him—­” began the other.

“No, no!” panted Lucy; and she caught his coat sleeve in her trembling hands.  “You see, you see—­you cannot even imagine it of me!  I kept it a secret—­because I was afraid!”

“Afraid?” he echoed.

“I was afraid that Ryder would leave me!  I was afraid that he would give me up!  And I loved him too much!—­Now,” she rushed on—­“you see what kind of a person I have been!  And I can sit here, and tell you that!  Is there anything that can make me ashamed after that?  Is there anything that can degrade me after that?  And what is there left for me to do but go to Waterman and try to undo what I have done?”

Montague was speechless, before the agony of her humiliation.