nd there was a dance that night,
for which Virginia had promised Loria several waltzes; but she complained
that the ride had tired her.

Instead of dancing she went after dinner to the private sitting-room
which she and Lady Gardiner shared, having quietly asked Roger Broom if
he would come to her there for a few minutes. He found her, not in the
room, but on the balcony, in floods of moonlight, which gave her beauty
an unearthly charm as she lay on a _chaise longue_, wrapped in an evening
cloak of white and silver brocade.

"You don't mind leaving the dance a little while--for me?" she asked.

Roger smiled his quiet, pleasant smile. "There's nothing in the world I
would mind leaving for you, Virginia," he said, "and I think you know
that very well."

"Sometimes I believe it's true. I should like to believe it to-night,"
she answered, "because I need your help. There's a secret, and I must
find it out."

As the girl spoke there was a slight sound in the room beyond the big,
open window.

"What's that?" exclaimed Roger. "Who is there?"

"Nobody," said Virginia. "It must be a log of olive-wood falling in the
fireplace."

CHAPTER II

THE STORY TOLD BY TWO

Roger waited. He knew that Virginia was gathering her forces together,
and that he might expect the unexpected.

"I want you to tell me all about that girl in mourning who lives at the
Chateau de la Roche," she said after a moment; "and what her brother
did."

Roger was slow in answering. "It's not a pleasant story for your ears. I
was sorry this afternoon that I had spoken even as freely as I did about
it before you. Loria took me to task rather, after you'd gone up to the
chateau, and he was right. By Jove! Virginia, I believe that if I'd said
nothing, the idea of buying the place would never have occurred to you."

"Perhaps not," she admitted. "But it _has_ occurred to me, and once I
have an idea in my head I keep it tenaciously--as all my long-suffering
friends know to their sorrow. Will you go to-morrow to the agent whose
address I have and make inquiries?"

"Certainly, if you wish."

"Oh, you think if no one thwarts me, I'll get over the fancy. But I
won't! I'm going to have that chateau among the olive trees for mine if
it costs me fifty thousand pounds (which it won't, I know), even if I
only live in it for one month out of five years. The thing is, to feel
it's my own. So now, you see, as the place is practically my property,
natural