146
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
"I was thinking, Rachel, you could advise me, if you
would, you are so clever, you know."
"Advise!" said Rachel, softly; but with a wild and
bitter rage ringing under it. "I did advise when it was
yet time to profit by advice. I bound you even by a
promise to take it! but you know how it ended! You
don't want my advice."
"But really I do, Radie. I quite allow I was wrong
— worse than wrong — but where is the use of attacking
me now, when I'm in this dreadful fix? I took a wrong
step; and what I now have to do is to guard myself, if
possible, from what I'm threatened with."
She fancied she saw his pale face grow more bloodless,
even in the shadow where he sat.
"I know you too well, Stanley. You want no advice.
You never took advice — you never will. Your desperate
and ingrained perversity has ruined us both."
"I wish you'd let me know my own mind. 1 say I do
— (and he uttered an unpleasant exclamation). Do you
think I'll leave matters to take their course, and sit down
here to be destroyed? I'm no such idiot. I tell you I'll
leave no stone unturned to save myself; and, in some meas-
ure, you too, Radie. You don't seem to comprehend the
tremendous misfortune that menaces me— us — you and
me."
And he cursed Mark Wylder with a gasp of hatred not
easily expressed.
She winced at the name, and brushed her hand to her
ear.
"Don't— don't — don't" she said, vehemently.
"Well, what the devil do you mean by refusing to help
me, even with a hint? I say — I know — all the odds
are against us. It is sometimes a long game; but unless
I'm, sharp, I can't escape what's coming. I can't—you