very minute
instructions. Peter, knowing what was in store for his truculent
master, would have liked to offer a little sensible advice, to
dissuade him from the course he was bent on pursuing.

But the habits of long obedience, the fear that if he opposed him in
the smallest detail he might draw suspicion upon himself, weighed
heavily on him. Reluctantly he agreed to obey Zouroff's orders. Later
on, when Zouroff was caged himself, he might be able to undo the
mischief he had promised to abet.

The Prince stole out of the Palace as silently as he had entered it.
Nobody but Peter and another servant, as much in his confidence as the
valet himself, knew that he had been there.

It was a very busy day with him. A few more hours should see the end
of all this plotting and scheming, should see his well-laid plans
mature. The thought of vengeance, and a sense of coming triumph,
induced in him a certain exultation which expressed itself in his
resolute glance, his assured bearing. He made his way on foot to the
villa of Madame Quero. He had made up his mind to have a little
reckoning with her, in order to wind up his final accounts.

The beautiful singer received him graciously. A woman of capricious
moods, she had, for a brief space, admitted to herself that she had
not treated him quite fairly, had been found lacking in the spirit of
true comradeship. After all, Zouroff had loved her in his rough,
masterful way, and he had always been generous.

She had played him false in this respect, that she had allowed herself
to be attracted by the handsome young Italian, to the extent of
thwarting the Prince's plans in regard to him. And it was to no
purpose. Corsini was in love with the Princess Nada, no doubt a
hopeless passion on his part. But he would never give a thought to her
save in the way of friendship. And that was the last thing that the
passionate heart of the Spanish woman desired.

When, therefore, Zouroff entered her boudoir, in apparently one of his
best moods, she felt some of his old attraction for her returning. She
little knew what deep anger against her was burning in his heart.

But he was a skilful diplomatist; he showed nothing of this. He kissed
her fondly, with the warm kiss of a man who hoped some day to make her
his wife.

"Ah, my dear sweetheart, how pleasant to see you again!" said the
base hypocrite. "I have had a busy day. Things are going well. It
will not be long before my utmost ambitions