he compact we made, two months ago. We
agreed to stand by each other, to be good comrades, to share our
last sous, and naturally to give mutual aid under all and every
circumstance."

Desmond nodded.

"At any rate, O'Neil, adventures cannot be so common as you
represent, since neither of you, so far, has called upon me for
aid or assistance."

"Have you heard the last piece of court scandal, Kennedy?"
O'Sullivan asked, as the three friends sat down to breakfast
together, a few days later.

"No; what is it?"

"Well, it is said that a certain damsel--her name is, at present,
a secret--has disappeared."

"There is nothing very strange about that," O'Neil laughed.
"Damsels do occasionally disappear. Sometimes they have taken
their fate into their own hands, and gone off with someone they
like better than the man their father has chosen for them;
sometimes, again, they are popped into a convent for contumacy.
Well, go on, O'Sullivan, that cannot be all."

"Well, it is all that seems to be certain. You know that I went
with the colonel, last night, to a ball at the Hotel de Rohan, and
nothing else was talked about. Several there returned from
Versailles in the afternoon, and came back full of it. All sorts
of versions are current. That she is a rich heiress goes without
saying. If she had not been, her disappearance would have excited
no attention whatever. So we may take it that she is an heiress of
noble family. Some say that her father had chosen, as her husband,
a man she disliked exceedingly, and that she has probably taken
refuge in a convent. Some think that she has been carried off
bodily, by someone smitten both by her charms and her fortune. It
is certain that the king has interested himself much in the
matter, and expresses the greatest indignation. Though, as it
would not seem that she is a royal ward, it is not clear why he
should concern himself over it. Some whisper that the king's anger
is but feigned, and that the girl has been carried off by one of
his favourites."

"Why should such a thing as that be supposed?" Desmond asked,
indignantly.

"Well, there is something in support of the idea. If anyone else
were to steal away, with or without her consent, a young lady of
the court with influential friends, he would be likely to pass the
first two years of his married life in one of the royal prisons;
and therefore none but a desperate man, or one so secure of the
king's favour as to feel certain