"My dear Count," the Princess said, "to-night has proved to me that it
is quite time Jeanne had some one to look after her. Let me ask you.
Are you perfectly serious in your suit?"

"Absolutely!" De Brensault answered eagerly. "I myself would like the
matter settled. I propose to you for her hand."

The Princess bowed her head thoughtfully.

"Now, my dear Count," she said, "I am going to talk to you as a woman
of the world. You know that my husband, in leaving his fortune entirely
to Jeanne, treated me very badly. You may know this, or you may not
know it, but the fact remains that I am a very poor woman."

De Brensault nodded sympathetically. He guessed pretty well what was
coming.

"If I," the Princess continued, "assist you to gain my stepdaughter
Jeanne for your wife, and the control of all her fortune, it is only
fair," she continued, "that I should be recompensed in some way for the
allowance which I have been receiving as her guardian, and which will
then come to an end. I do not ask for anything impossible or
unreasonable. I want you to give me twenty thousand pounds the day that
you marry Jeanne. It is about one year's income for her rentes, a mere
trifle to you, of course."

"Twenty thousand pounds," De Brensault repeated reflectively.

The Princess nodded. She was sorry that she had not asked thirty
thousand.

"I am not a mercenary woman," she said. "If I were not almost a pauper
I would accept nothing. As it is, I think you will call my proposal a
very fair one."

"The exact amount of Mademoiselle Jeanne's dot," he remarked, "has
never been discussed between us."

"The figures are altogether beyond me," the Princess said. "To tell you
the truth I have never had the heart to go into them. I have always
thought it terribly unfair that my husband should have left me nothing
but an annuity, and this great fortune to the child. However, as you
are both rich, it seems to me that settlements will not be necessary.
On your honeymoon you can go and see her trustees in Paris, and you
yourself will, of course, then take over the management of her fortune."

De Brensault looked thoughtful for a moment or two.

"Perhaps," he said, "it would be better if I had a business interview
with her trustees before the ceremony."

"Just as you like," the Princess answered carelessly. "Monsieur
Laplanche is in Cairo just now, but he will be back in Paris in a few
weeks' time. Perhaps you would rather delay everythin