le circumstances to my mind, and I felt it my duty to ask if you
had been quite candid with Trevor upon the subject. I am sincerely
grieved to know that my suspicion in this respect was but too well
founded."

"He was not the man I knew at Valpre" burst forth Chris, with passionate
vehemence. "You may believe it or not; it is the truth!"

"Then, my dear," said Aunt Philippa, with the calmness of unalterable
conviction, "there must have been two men who enjoyed that privilege."

Chris broke into a wild laugh--a laugh that had been struggling for
utterance for the past hour.

"Two! Why, there were a dozen at least, some soldiers, some fishermen!
Ask Trevor! He can tell you all about them--if he thinks it worth while!"

"And yet you have not mentioned Captain Rodolphe to him?" said Aunt
Philippa. Her eyes were fixed unsparingly upon the girl's face, and she
saw the colour dying away as swiftly as it had risen. "That is strange,"
she remarked, with emphasis.

"It is not strange!" flashed back Chris. The laugh had gone from her
lips, leaving them white, but she faced her adversary unflinchingly. It
was open war now--a fierce and bitter struggle for the mastery, for which
she knew herself to be ill-equipped, but in which she must fight to the
last. She knew that Aunt Philippa had always regarded her with cold
dislike, and it dawned upon her in that moment that now--now that her
position was assured, now that she was rich and popular and the wife of a
man who was universally honoured in that great world of society in which
her aunt had always striven for a leading place--the dislike had turned
to a cruel jealousy that demanded her downfall. And she was horribly at
her mercy; deep in her heart she knew that also, but she would not own
it, even to herself. Aunt Philippa had not yet unmasked the truth. Until
she succeeded in doing so, all was not lost.

"It is not strange," she repeated, and this time she spoke quietly,
summoning all her strength to the unequal contest. "Captain Rodolphe was
not of sufficient importance to mention to Trevor. Besides--"

"Although you hate him so bitterly!" Aunt Philippa reminded her.

Chris pressed on, ignoring the thrust. "Besides, Trevor does not need,
does not so much as wish to be told of every little incident that ever
happened in my life. He prefers to trust me."

"And have you never abused his confidence?" asked Aunt Philippa.

It was inevitable. She flinched ever so slightly, b