inds of
mysterious Germans. Sometimes there was a scandal. Once a Belgian
Colonel was found shot in the billiard-room; they said it was
suicide and the thing was hushed up, but dame! now that I know
what I know...

"Enfin! I shut my eyes to it all... it was none of my business...
and I revelled in my robes, my dancing, my new life of luxury!

"And then the war came. I was at Laeken, resting after a visit to
Rome. There was a lot of talk about the war amongst the people
who came to my house, but I did not see how it could affect me,
an artiste, and I never read the newspapers. My German friends
assured me that, in a little while, the German army would be at
Brussels; that, if I remained quietly at home, all would be well.
They were very elated and confident, these German friends of
mine. And rightly; for within a few weeks the Germans entered the
city and a General quartered himself in my villa. It was he who
brought the Crown Prince to see me.

"Mon cher, you know this young man and his reputation. I am not
excusing myself; but all my life had been spent up to then in the
bas-fonds of society. I had never known what it was to be courted
and admired by one who had the world at his feet. Parbleu! one
does not meet a future Emperor every day!

"Enfin! the Prince carried me with him back to Metz, where he had
his headquarters. He was very epris with me, but you know his
temperament! No woman can hold him for more than a few weeks,
vain and weak and arrogant as he is. But pardon! I was forgetting
that you are a good German. I fear I offend your
susceptibilities..."

Desmond laughed drily.

"Madame," he said, "I hope I have preserved sufficient liberty of
judgment to have formed my own opinion about our future
sovereign. Most Germans have..."

"Alors," she broke in fiercely, her voice shaking with passion,
"you know what an ignoble canaille is this young man, without
even enough decency of feeling to respect the troops of whom he
has demanded such bloody sacrifices. At Metz we were near enough
to the fighting to realize the blood and tears of this war. But
the Prince thought of nothing, but his own amusement. To live as
he did, within sound of the guns, with parties every night, women
and dancing and roulette and champagne suppers--bah! c'etait trop
fort! It awakened in me the love of country which lies dormant in
all of us. I wanted to help my country, lest I might sink as low
as he..."

"One day the Prince bro