t you will know. Buy
your chateau, if you choose. You've money enough to squander on twenty
such toys and not miss it. No doubt poor Madeleine Dalahaide will be
benefited by the exchange--her castle for your money. Fortunate for her,
perhaps, that she is the last of the French Dalahaides, and has the right
to sell the chateau."

"You will tell me nothing more?"

"Nothing."

"Then I will tell _you_ one thing. I believe that the man was innocent. I
have seen his portrait. I have seen his sister. That is enough for me.
But what you will not tell me I shall learn for myself, and then--and
then--you shall see what you shall see."

* * * * *

Virginia slept restlessly that night. In her dreams she was always in the
Valley of the Shadow, striving to find her way out into the sunlight; and
sometimes the valley seemed but the entrance to that bottomless pit of
shame where Maxime Dalahaide was entombed. She awoke from a dream
forgotten, in a spasm of cold fear, before it was dawn, and switching on
the electric light near the bed, she drew her watch from under the
pillow. It was just six o'clock; and for a few moments Virginia lay
still, thinking over the events of yesterday. After all, what did they
mean for her? Nothing, said Reason; everything, said a Voice to which she
could give no name.

Suddenly her heart began to beat quickly with the excitement of a strange
thought that seemed to spring out of herself, and then turn to face her.
It pushed the girl from her bed, and she rose, shivering; for even here
at Cap Martin it was cold in the early morning before the vivid sun had
warmed the air.

She was used to lying in bed until a fire of fragrant pine cones and
olive wood crackled on the hearth, and her own maid had filled the bath
in the bathroom adjoining. But now she bathed in the cold, dressing
herself in her riding-habit, and even arranging her hair without help. By
seven her toilet was made, and, turning off the electric light, she found
that the sky was pink and golden with the winter sunrise.

The girl rang for coffee, and ordered her horse to be ready. She and Kate
Gardiner never met before ten o'clock, at earliest; thus three hours
would pass before any one save her maid would begin to wonder where she
was; and for the maid she would leave a line of explanation, mentioning
that she had gone out on business, and that nothing was to be said unless
Lady Gardiner inquired.

Virgin