is the legitimate heir, the
child of the late Grand Duke--and Max is thrust out of the succession,
because our father's marriage was a morganatic one."

"_Your_ father?"

"Yes"--with a brief smile--"I am the sister whose existence you
discovered."

For a moment Diana was silent. It had never occurred to her to connect
Max and Olga in any way; the latter had always seemed to her to be more
or less at open enmity with him.

Immediately her heart contracted with the old haunting fear. What, then,
was Adrienne to Max?

"Go on," she whispered at last, under her breath. "Go on."

"I've never forgiven my father"--Olga spoke with increasing passion.
"For his happiness with his English wife, Max and I have paid every day
of our lives! . . . As soon as I was of age, I refused the State
allowance granted me as a daughter of Boris Mazaroff, and left the
Ruvanian Court. Since then I've lived in England as plain Miss
Lermontof, and earned my own living. Not one penny of their tainted
money will I touch!"--fiercely.

"But Max--Max!" broke in Diana. "Tell me about Max!" Olga's personal
quarrel with her country held no interest for a woman on the rack.

"Max?" Olga shrugged her shoulders. "Max is either a saint or a
fool--God knows which! For his loyalty to the House that branded him
with a stigma, and to the woman who robbed him of his heritage, has never
failed."

"You mean--Adrienne?" whispered Diana, as Olga paused an instant, shaken
by emotion.

"Yes, I mean Adrienne--Nadine Mazaroff. Her parents were killed in the
Ruvanian revolution--butchered by the mob on the very steps of the
palace. But she herself was saved by my brother. At the time the revolt
broke out, he was living in Borovnitz, the capital, and he rushed off to
the palace and contrived to rescue Nadine and get her away to England.
Since then, while the Royalist party have been working day and night for
the restoration of the Mazaroffs, Max has watched over her safety." She
paused, resuming with an accent of jealous resentment: "And it has been
no easy task. German money backed the revolution, in the hope that when
Ruvania grew tired of her penny-farthing republic--as she was bound to
do--Germany might step in again and convert Ruvania into a little
dependent State under Prussia. There's always a German princeling handy
for any vacant throne!"--contemptuously--"and in the event of a big
European War, Ruvania in German hands would provide an