The very fact that this man compelled his daughter to take such a course made Graydon wish never to speak to him again.

"No," he muttered; "the girl must yield to me, and cut loose from all her father's shifty ways and associations." The night was so beautiful, and his thoughts kept him so wakeful, that he sat in a shadow and watched the moonlight transfiguring the world into beauty.

Before long he heard a step, and a man came from that end of the piazza which was nearest the summer-house.

As he passed in, Graydon saw that it was Arnault.

The quick suspicion came into his mind, "Could he have been watching ?" Then flashed another thought, "Could she have become aware of his presence, and was this the cause of her abrupt flight ?" The latter supposition was dismissed indignantly and at once.