h bien_, I
promise."

"Good!" said Max. He laid Bertrand's hand down and rose.

Yet a moment he stood above him, looking downwards. "You keep your
promises, eh?" he asked abruptly.

Bertrand flushed. "I am a man of honour," he said proudly.

"Yes, I know you are." Max touched his shoulder with a boyish,
propitiatory movement. "I beg your pardon, old chap. I'd be one myself if
I could."

"But you--but you--" Bertrand protested in confusion.

"I am a Wyndham," said Max, with a bitter smile. "It doesn't run in our
family, that. But I'll play the game with you, man, just because you're
straight."

He patted Bertrand's shoulder lightly, and turned away. There were not
many who knew Max Wyndham intimately, and of those not one who would have
credited the fact that the innate honour of a French castaway had somehow
made him feel ashamed.

CHAPTER XIII

WOMANHOOD

"A thousand thanks, _chere Madame_, for the generous favour which you
have bestowed upon me! I shall make it my business to see that no rumour
of your droll secret of Valpre ever reach the ear of the strict husband,
lest he should imagine that among the rocks of that paradise there lies
entombed something more precious to him than the gay romance of your
youth.

"To this undertaking I subscribe my signature, with many compliments to
the good secretary; and to you, _chere Madame_, my ever constant
devotion.

"_Toujours a vous_,
GUILLAUME RODOLPHE.

"P.S.--It is with profound regret that I find myself unable to visit you,
but my duty recalls me to my regiment in Paris."

A faint sigh escaped Chris, the first breath she had drawn for many
seconds. She stood by her dressing-table in the full glare of the
electric light, dressed in white, her wonderful hair shining like
burnished copper. She was to give her first dinner-party that night. It
was not to be a very large affair, yet it was something of an ordeal in
her estimation. She would probably have faced it more easily away from
Aunt Philippa's critical eyes. But this was a condition not obtainable.
Aunt Philippa had decided to remain some little time longer at Kellerton
Old Park in consequence of an engagement having fallen through, a state
of affairs that Noel regarded with a disgust too forcible to be expressed
in words, and which had driven Max away within three days of his arrival.

Upon Chris had devolved the main burden of her aunt's society, and a
heavy burden she had begun to find i