ike that better than anything
you've said yet. You are aware that he _may_ inherit the dukedom of
Chudleigh?"

"I have several times heard you say so," said the other, coldly.

Lady Henry looked at her long and keenly. Various things that Wilfrid
Bury had said recurred to her. She thought of Captain Warkworth.
She wondered.

Suddenly she held out her hand.

"I dare say you won't take it, mademoiselle. I suppose I've been
insulting you. But--you have been playing tricks with me. In a good many
ways, we're quits. Still, I confess, I admire you a good deal. Anyway, I
offer you my hand. I apologize for my recent remarks. Shall we bury the
hatchet, and try and go on as before?"

Julie Le Breton turned slowly and took the hand--without unction.

"I make you angry," she said, and her voice trembled, "without knowing
how or why."

Lady Henry gulped.

"Oh, it mayn't answer," she said, as their hands dropped. "But we may as
well have one more trial. And, mademoiselle, I shall be delighted that
you should assist the Duchess with her _bazaar_."

Julie shook her head.

"I don't think I have any heart for it," she said, sadly; and then, as
Lady Henry sat silent, she approached.

"You look very tired. Shall I send your maid?"

That melancholy and beautiful voice laid a strange spell on Lady Henry.
Her companion appeared to her, for a moment, in a new light--as a
personage of drama or romance. But she shook off the spell.

"At once, please. Another day like this would put an end to me."

VII

Julie le Breton was sitting alone in her own small sitting-room. It was
the morning of the Tuesday following her Sunday scene with Lady Henry,
and she was busy with various household affairs. A small hamper of
flowers, newly arrived from Lady Henry's Surrey garden, and not yet
unpacked, was standing open on the table, with various empty
flower-glasses beside it. Julie was, at the moment, occupied with the
"Stores order" for the month, and Lady Henry's cook-housekeeper had but
just left the room after delivering an urgent statement on the need for
"relining" a large number of Lady Henry's copper saucepans.

The room was plain and threadbare. It had been the school-room of
various generations of Delafields in the past. But for an observant eye
it contained a good many objects which threw light upon its present
occupant's character and history. In a small bookcase beside the fire
were a number of volumes in French bindings. T