"Or am I to take them to the colonel of your regiment ?" "You may take them to the devil!" Merryon said.

He was holding her crushed to his heart.

He flung his furious challenge over her head.

"If the marriage was genuine you shall set her free.

If it was not"-- he paused, and ended in a voice half-choked with passion--"you can go to blazes!" The other man showed his teeth in a wolfish snarl.