ly I'd like to know something of the people who have been its
owners."

"I don't see why. When one buys a house one doesn't usually agitate
oneself much about the family history of one's predecessors."

"Roger, you know this is different. I want you and no one to else tell
me. Still, if you won't----"

"Oh, if you insist you must be gratified, I suppose, up to certain
limits. What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"H'm! Rather too large an order, my child. However, to begin with, the
Dalahaides of the Chateau de la Roche were English in the last
generation, but the family is of French origin. When the last member of
the French branch died, a banker in London was the next heir. He gave the
chateau and the Dalahaide house in Paris as a wedding present to his son,
who was about to be married. The bride and bridegroom came over on their
honeymoon, and took such a fancy to the chateau that they made their home
there, or rather between it and the old house in Paris. This young couple
had in time a son, and then a daughter. Perhaps you saw the daughter
to-day?"

"Yes, it was she. You didn't ask me about her before."

"No; the fact is, I thought that further conversation on the subject
would be too painful for poor Loria. You must have seen that he was
upset."

"I couldn't help seeing. But go on."

"Well, the father and mother and their two children were a most devoted
family. They were all handsome and clever and popular, and if they were
not millionaires, they were extravagant, for they gave delightful
entertainments here and in Paris, and their purses were open for any one
who wished to dip in his fingers.

"The son Maxime, always called Max, inherited his father's generous,
reckless, extravagant ways. He was drawn into the fastest set in Paris,
and lost a lot of money at baccarat. That wouldn't have mattered much,
perhaps, if at the same time some large investments of the father's
hadn't gone wrong and crippled the family resources. Then, as misfortunes
generally come in crowds, there was a slight earthquake along this part
of the coast, and the chateau was partly ruined, as you saw to-day, for
they were not able then to have it restored. 'Next year,' they said; but
there was no next year for the Dalahaides. Only a few months after the
first two blows came the third, which was to crush the family for ever.
Max Dalahaide was accused of murder, tried, and condemned."

"What--he is _dead_, then? I thought you