my life of which he is cognizant.

"I might as well tell you all," she resumed after a pause, "for I see
that it is in my heart to tell you sooner or later. I was educated in
a convent. While there I met a man whom I supposed to be a gentleman.
I knew little or nothing about men and less about love. I got it into
my foolish head that I loved this man, and at his urgent request I ran
away with him. We were to have been married.

"I was with him just three hours. All in the daytime and in public
places--railroad stations and upon a train. When we reached our
destination where we were to have been married, two officers stepped up
to my escort as we descended from the train, and placed him under
arrest. They took me also, but when I had told my story they did not
detain me, other than to send me back to the convent under the care of
a matron. It seemed that the man who had wooed me was no gentleman at
all, but a deserter from the army as well as a fugitive from civil
justice. He had a police record in nearly every country in Europe.

"The matter was hushed up by the authorities of the convent. Not even
my parents knew of it. But Nikolas met the man afterward, and learned
the whole story. Now he threatens to tell the count if I do not do
just as he wishes me to."

Tarzan laughed. "You are still but a little girl. The story that you
have told me cannot reflect in any way upon your reputation, and were
you not a little girl at heart you would know it. Go to your husband
tonight, and tell him the whole story, just as you have told it to me.
Unless I am much mistaken he will laugh at you for your fears, and take
immediate steps to put that precious brother of yours in prison where
he belongs."

"I only wish that I dared," she said; "but I am afraid. I learned
early to fear men. First my father, then Nikolas, then the fathers in
the convent. Nearly all my friends fear their husbands--why should I
not fear mine?"

"It does not seem right that women should fear men," said Tarzan, an
expression of puzzlement on his face. "I am better acquainted with the
jungle folk, and there it is more often the other way around, except
among the black men, and they to my mind are in most ways lower in the
scale than the beasts. No, I cannot understand why civilized women
should fear men, the beings that are created to protect them. I should
hate to think that any woman feared me."

"I do not think that any woman would