I tell you, and I am speaking truthfully, that I do not care if you print her letters and every man, woman and child read them; they shall read my vindication of her and my denunciation of you." "You see, Lord Atherton, she did promise to marry me, and I did reckon upon her fortune.

What will you give me for the letters ?" "Nothing.

If, after reading them, I find you really received, from the pure and noble lady who is now my wife, a promise of marriage, I will give you some compensation.

I will give you two thousand pounds, although I know that promise to have been drawn from her by fraud, treachery and cunning." Allan Lyster began to see, in his own phrase, that the game was up.

He unlocked the door of a little cabinet, and took from it a bundle of papers.