hat
you are not a great heiress. I have done the next best thing for you. I
have made people believe that you are. Be reasonable, and all will be
well yet. If you are going to play the Quixote, it will be ruin for all
of us. I cannot think how a child like you got such ideas. Remember
that I am many years older and wiser than you. You should leave it to
me to do what is best."

Jeanne shook her head.

"I cannot," she said simply. "I am sorry to disappoint you, but I shall
tell every one I meet that I have no money, and I will not marry the
Count de Brensault."

The Princess grasped her by the wrist.

"You will not obey me, child?" she said.

"I will obey you in everything reasonable," Jeanne said.

"Very well, then," the Princess answered, "go to your room at once."

Jeanne turned and walked toward the door. On the threshold, however,
she paused. There were many times, she remembered, when her stepmother
had been kind to her. She looked around at the Princess, sitting with
her head resting upon her clasped hands.

"I am very sorry," Jeanne said timidly, "that I cannot do what you
wish. It is not honest. Cannot you see that it is not honest?"

The Princess turned slowly round.

"Honest!" she repeated scornfully. "Who is there in our world who can
afford to be honest? You are behaving like a baby, Jeanne. I only hope
that before long you may come to your senses. Will you obey me if I
tell you not to leave your room until I send for you?"

Jeanne hesitated.

"Yes!" she said. "I will obey you in that."

"Then go there and wait," the Princess said. "I must think what to do."

CHAPTER IX

The Count de Brensault called in Berkeley Square at three o'clock
precisely that afternoon, but it was the Princess who received him, and
the Princess was alone.

"Well?" he asked, a little eagerly. "Mademoiselle Jeanne is more
reasonable, eh? You have good news?"

The Princess motioned him to a seat.

"I think," she said, "we had forgotten how young Jeanne really is. The
idea of getting married to any one seems to terrify her. After all, why
should we wonder at it? The school where she was brought up was a very,
very strict one, and this plunge into life has been a little sudden."

"You think, then," De Brensault asked eagerly, "that it is not I
personally whom she objects to so much?"

"Certainly not," the Princess answered. "It is simply you as the man
whom it is proposed that she should marry that she di