ny.
Well, this Mr. Hilson was so infatuated with--hush! That is a ring!"

While Madame de Fleury listened in breathless expectation, Lurline
opened the door and announced, "The dress of madame has arrived!"

"Ah! at last! at last! What happiness! I am saved, when I had almost
given up all hope! Monsieur de Gramont, you will excuse me! _Au
revoir!_"

Before Maurice could utter his congratulations upon the advent of the
dress, she had glided out of the room.

CHAPTER XXII.

MEETING.

The tangled web Count Tristan had woven for others began to fold its
meshes around himself, and to torture him with the dread that he might
be caught in his own snare. From the moment Maurice arrived in
Washington,--an event the count had not anticipated,--his covert use of
the authority entrusted to him was menaced with discovery. To a frank,
straightforward character, the very natural alternative would have
suggested itself of explaining, and, as far possible, justifying the
step just taken; but to a mind so full of guile, so wedded to wily
schemes as the count's, a simple, upright course would never have
occurred. The fear of exposure threw him into a state of nervous
irritability which allowed no rest, and he was compelled to pay the
price of deception by plunging deeper into her labyrinths, though every
step rendered extrication from the briery mazes more difficult.

On the morrow Maurice accompanied his grandmother, Bertha, and Count
Tristan to the residence of the Marchioness de Fleury. Count Tristan's
_malaise_ evinced itself by his unusually fretful and preoccupied
manner, his querulous tone, and a partial forgetfulness of those polite
observances of which he was rarely oblivious. He allowed his mother to
stand, looking at him in blind amazement, before he remembered to open
the door; was very near passing out of the room before her, and scarcely
recollected to hand her into the carriage. His abstraction was partially
dissipated by her scornful comment upon the contagious influences of a
plebeian country; but to recover himself entirely was out of the
question.

On reaching the ambassador's mansion, the visitors were disconcerted by
the information that Madame de Fleury "_did not receive_."

"She will receive us!" answered Maurice, recovering himself. "We are
here by appointment." And, passing the surprised domestic, he ushered
his grandmother into the drawing-room. Bertha and Count Tristan
followed.

The servan