The Last Woman

"The last woman? Nonsense!"

"The last woman, Melvin. You don't understand me."

"No, I do not understand you."

"Good God! Don't you see how it all came about? Don't you know Patricia Langdon?"

"I know that I won't hear a word against her, even now--even from you, Duncan," said the lawyer, with a touch of savagery.

"Don't you understand that, having put her name to a written contract with me, she would not break that contract, or repudiate it? And don't you see that she has intended, all along, to force me into a position where I would be the one to repudiate its terms? You're a poor judge of character, Melvin, if you don't see that. You have never known Patricia Langdon, if you don't understand her, now. And"--he hesitated an instant--"your association with me has taught you mighty little about my character, if you haven't guessed what I will do--now!"

"What will you do, Roderick? What do you mean?" asked the lawyer, alarmed by the deep intensity with which Duncan spoke those last words.

"I shall go to Montana. I shall start to-night. I shall find Patricia Langdon. I shall live up to the terms of the contract I made with her, and I shall compel her to do the same. I shall make her my wife. I shall bring her back to New York, to her father, to her home, as Mrs. Roderick Duncan. That is what I shall do. That is what I mean."

"God bless you, boy! But--it can't be done."

"It shall be done."

"But, she will never consent to such an arrangement. She is the last woman in the world to drag your name--"

"The last woman; that is it. She is the last of the Langdon's; she shall be the last of the Duncan's, too. She will keep to the letter of her contract, if I force her to it. I know that. And I will force her to it."

"But the man! What will you do with him?"

Duncan stared a moment. Then, he smiled, as he replied: "After Patricia Langdon has become Patricia Duncan, I will kill him. Good-day, Melvin."