none. Really, Princess, we must be
going; it is quite dark--"

"Stefanone!" exclaimed Francesca, while he was speaking the last words,
which she did not hear. "Stefanone of Subiaco--of course!"

"We must really be going," said Griggs, rising to his feet, and
wondering indifferently why it was so hard to make her understand.

She rose to her feet slowly. Lord Redin's story was intricately confused
in her mind with the few words which she had retained of what Griggs had
said.

"Yes--yes--Stefanone," she said in a low voice, as though to herself,
and she stood still, comprehending the whole situation in a flash, and
imagining that Griggs knew the whole truth and had been telling it to
her as though she had not known it. "But how did you know that Lord
Redin took the girl's body and burnt it?" she asked, quite certain that
he had mentioned the fact.

"What girl?" asked Griggs in wonder.

"Why, the body of Stefanone's daughter, which he managed to burn in the
convent when he carried off my cousin! How did you know about it?"

"I did not know about it," said Griggs. "Your cousin? I do not
understand."

"My cousin--yes--Maria Braccio--Gloria's mother! You have just been
talking about her--"

"I?" asked Griggs, bewildered.

Francesca stepped back from him, suddenly guessing that she had revealed
Lord Redin's secret.

"Is it possible?" she asked in a low voice. "Oh, it is all a mistake!"
she cried suddenly. "I have told you his story--oh, I am losing my
head!"

"Come," said Griggs, authoritatively. "We must get out of the church, at
all events, or we shall be locked in."

"Oh no!" answered Francesca. "There is always somebody here--"

"There is not. You must really come."

"Yes--but there is no danger of being locked in. Yes--let us walk down
the nave. There is more light."

They walked slowly, for she was too much confused to hasten her steps.
Her inexplicable mistake troubled her terribly. She remembered how she
had warned Lord Redin not to tell her any secrets, and how seriously
she, the most discreet of women, had resolved never to reveal what he
had said. But the impression of his story had been so much more direct
and strong than even the first words Griggs had spoken, that so soon as
she had realized that the latter was speaking approximately of the same
subject, she had lost the thread of what he was saying and had seemed to
hear Lord Redin's dreadful tale all over again. She thought that she was
lo