llency was about to depart, Saunders stopped him.

"One word, Your Excellency. Baron Griffin and myself were witnesses to
a very sad occurrence in Sihasset--"

The Minister turned hurriedly.

"You are mistaken, my friend," he said, significantly. "You are
mistaken. You saw nothing--remember that. It will be better for all
concerned. Your State Department would not thank you for making
embarrassing statements. Things have come out happily for you, if not
for the unfortunate Duchess. Yet, after all, perhaps the best thing
that could have happened for her was what you believed--until you were
corrected--happened in Sihasset. Baron Griffin will tell you that I
speak the truth when I say that the next best thing was her own death."

Mark inclined his head, for he had heard something of the reputation of
Luigi del Farno, when he was in Florence.

And then for the moment the Minister was forgotten in the man, and
tears glistened in His Excellency's eyes.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I never saw Her Royal Highness. But I have
heard a great deal of her, and I have followed her career. She was not
born to be a Duchess. She had all my sympathy, for she was just a
woman--beautiful, sentimental, loving. She was just the kind to do the
rash things which courts will not tolerate. She was the kind to follow
her own heart and not the dictates of kings. She was unhappy at court,
and that unhappiness was increased when she fell in love with the
Italian. She was the kind who would love until death--and then beyond
the grave. She was one who would make any sacrifice to her devotion.
But she fought against the solid rock of princely customs and
prejudices, and there was nothing for her but to break upon it. Her
love ruined that young officer. He was doomed from the moment she went
away and he followed her. No earthly power could have saved him.
But--believe me--she is better dead than married to him. We had his
life investigated. He has had his just deserts. The Grand Duchess was
not the first. It is well that she was the last, poor girl. The most
merciful thing that could have happened to a woman of her character was
the thing that did happen. She never knew of his fate. She died
thinking that she should meet him again--that she had successfully
broken down all barriers--that she and her lover could live their lives
in peace, here in America. She never learned that there could be no
happiness for her with a man l