address where this young man could be found, he and all his
friends, might she depart without mention being made of her, or her name
appearing in any way? The commissionary agreed, and she gave him the
piece of paper. The Englishman--it was Gilbert Deyes--took her back to
her hotel, and the police captured Jean le Roi and the whole band of his
associates. The girl returned to England that night. Jean le Roi was
sentenced to six years' penal servitude. His time was up last week."

"What a diabolical plot!" Macheson exclaimed. "But the marriage! It
could have been annulled, surely?"

"Perhaps," she answered, "but I did not dare to face the publicity. I
felt that I should never be able to look any one in the face again. I
had given my name to the guide Johnson as Clara Hurd. I hoped that they
might never find me."

"They cannot do you any harm," Macheson declared. "Let me go with you to
the lawyers. They will see that you are not molested."

She shook her head.

"It is not so easy," she said. "The marriage was quite legal. To have it
annulled I should have to enter a suit. The whole story would come out.
I could never live in England afterwards."

"But you don't mean," he protested, "to remain bound to this blackguard
all your life!"

"How can I free myself," she asked, "except by making myself the
laughing-stock of the country?"

"Why did you send for me?" he asked bluntly.

"To ask for your advice--and to protect me," she added, with a shiver.
"It is not only money that Jean le Roi wants! It is vengeance because I
betrayed him."

"As for that, I won't leave you except when you send me away," he
declared. "And my advice! If you want that, the right thing to me seems
simple enough. Go at once to your lawyers. They will tell you the proper
course. At the worst, the man could be bought off for the present."

She raised her head.

"I will not give him one penny," she declared. "I have always sworn
that."

"But I'm afraid if you won't try to divorce him that he can claim some,"
Macheson said.

"Then he must come and take it by force," she declared.

There was silence between them. Then she rose to her feet and came and
stood before him.

"I ought to have told you all this long ago," she said simply. "To-day I
felt that I must tell you without another hour's delay. Now that you
know, I am not so terrified. But you must promise to come and see me
every day while that brute remains in London."

"Yes! I prom