the occurrence of the other night, wasted no time in coming
to business."

"'Mrs. Clephane,' she said, sitting on the corner of the table just
where you are sitting now, 'I have a proposition to make to you--may I
make it?'

"I could see no reason to forbid, so I acquiesced.

"'And if you cannot accept straightway, will you promise to forget that
it was made?' she asked.

"Again I acquiesced. I admit, I was curious.

"'We assume,' said she, 'that between France and Germany you are
indifferent.'

"'Paris and Berlin have each their good points,' I replied.

"'Quite so,' she acquiesced; 'just now, however, we ask you to favour
Berlin and for a consideration.'

"'I don't want a consideration,' I smiled; 'tell me what's the favour
you seek?'

"'We ask you,' she replied instantly, 'to take a letter to the French
Ambassador and tell him that it is the letter Madame Durrand gave you in
New York, and that it has just been returned to you by the American
State Department.'

"'Have you the letter with you?' I asked.

"'I have,' she replied, producing it from her bag. 'It may not exactly
resemble the original.'

"'It doesn't,' said I.

"'But the French Ambassador won't know it,' she smiled. 'Further, so as
to make the matter entirely regular with you, you will receive an
appointment in the German Secret Service and five thousand dollars in
advance.'

"'Is it usual to--change sides so suddenly?' I asked.

"'You're not changing sides,' she explained. 'You've never had a side,
in the diplomatic sense. It is entirely regular in diplomacy for you to
take such a course as is proposed; there is nothing unusual about it.
And, my dear Mrs. Clephane, a position in the German Foreign Secret
Service is a rare plum, I can assure you, even though you may not care
to be--active in it.'

"Naturally, I understood. Mrs. Spencer thinking me the same type as
herself, without conscience, character, or morals, had evolved this plan
either to test me or to ensnare me. To test me, because she is jealous
of you; or to ensnare me because she wants to win out diplomatically--or
both, it may be. I am a poor hand at pretence; but I played the game, as
you would say, to the best of my ability. So I seemed to fall in with
her scheme; France was nothing to me; I had been given no option in the
matter of accepting the letter and attempting its delivery; I had done
all and more than could be expected of a disinterested person; I had
lost the