A BELATED PROPOSAL Her mood--outraged against Craig, sullenly determined to marry him, angry with her relatives, her mother no less than her grandmother, because they were driving her to these desperate measures--this mood persisted, became intenser, more imperious in its demand for a sacrifice as the afternoon wore on.

When Grant Arkwright came, toward six o'clock, she welcomed him, the first-comer bringing her the longed-for chance to discharge the vials of her wrath.

And she noted with pleasure that he, too, was in a black humor.

Before she could begin he burst forth: "What's this that Josh Craig has been telling me?
He seems to have gone stark mad!" Margaret eyed him with icy disdain.

"If there is any quality that can be called the most repulsive," said she, "it is treachery.