n you?"

"I fancy I can trust you--especially as the house is surrounded. If
you don't mind joining us later."

Marie Louise went to her room. Her maid was there in a palsy of fear.
The servants had not dared apply themselves to the keyholes, but they
knew that the master was visited by the police and that a cordon was
drawn about the house.

The ashen girl offered her help to Marie Louise, wondering if she
would compromise herself with the law, but incapable of deserting so
good a mistress even at such a crisis. Marie Louise thanked her and
told her to go to bed, compelled her to leave. Then she set about the
dreary task of selecting a few necessaries--a nightgown, an extra day
gown, some linen, some silver, and a few brushes. She felt as if she
were laying out her own grave-clothes, and that she would need little
and not need that little long.

She threw a good-by look, a long, sweeping, caressing glance, about
her castle, and went across the hall, lugging her hand-bag. Before she
entered Sir Joseph's room she knocked.

It was Mr. Verrinder that answered, "Come in."

He was seated in a chair, dejected and making himself as inoffensive
as possible. Lady Webling had packed her own bag and was helping the
helpless Sir Joseph find the things he was looking for in vain, though
they were right before him. Marie Louise saw evidences that a larger
packing had already been done. Verrinder had surprised them, about to
flee.

Sir Joseph was ready at last. He was closing his bag when he took a
last glance, and said:

"My toot'-brush and powder."

He went to his bathroom cabinet, and there he saw in the little
apothecary-shop a bottle of tablets prescribed for him during his
illness. It was conspicuously labeled "_Poison_."

He stood staring at the bottle so long in such fascination that Lady
Webling came to the door to say:

"Vat is it you could not find now, papa?"

She leaned against the edge of the casement, and he pointed to the
bottle. Their eyes met, and in one long look they passed through a
brief Gethsemane. No words were exchanged. She nodded. He took the
bottle from the shelf stealthily, unscrewed the top, poured out a heap
of tablets and gave them to her, then poured another heap into his fat
palm.

"_Prosit_!" he said, and they flung the venom into their throats. It
was brackish merely from the coating, but they could not swallow all
the pellets. He filled a glass of water at the faucet and handed it