departure, and
could Madeleine, even by a hint, dismiss him from her own house?

"Past five o'clock," said she, looking up from her drawing. "Bertha,
pray ask Maurice to come to me."

When Maurice obeyed the summons, Madeleine remarked, showing him her
watch, "You see how late it is; I fear the countess will become
exhausted for want of food. It is in vain to hope that she could be
induced to dine here; had you not better conduct her home and return?"

"Yes, certainly; it would be the wisest plan; how thoughtful you are!"

"Shall I send for a carriage? I fear she would not enter mine, or I
would order that."

"I suppose not; it is wonderful to what cruel and inconsistent length
she carries her pride."

"It is not our place, Maurice, to measure its length or analyze its
workings. There is Robert in the hall; tell him to call a carriage."

When the carriage arrived, the countess, Bertha and Maurice, drove away
together.

CHAPTER XL.

RECOGNITION.

With electric rapidity flashed the news through Washington that
Mademoiselle Melanie, the fashionable dressmaker, was a lady of rank,--a
heroine,--a being hardly inferior to those disguised princesses who
figure in popular fairy tales. Numberless romantic stories were
fabricated and circulated, and the startling and improbable motives
assigned for her incognita bore witness to the fertile imagination of
the American public.

It may well be imagined that there was but one all-engrossing theme
discussed in the working-rooms of Mademoiselle Melanie's establishment.
Mademoiselle Victorine was not a little disgusted when she learned that
a secret of such moment had been so successfully concealed from her. But
the quick-witted foreigner had too much tact to betray her ignorance by
evincing astonishment in the presence of the _employees_, or the patrons
of Mademoiselle Melanie. On the contrary, Mademoiselle Victorine gave
them to understand that she had all along been the repository of
Mademoiselle de Gramont's secrets, and knew more of her past history and
future plans than was yet suspected.

Madeleine's thoughtful kindness prompted her to make a brief explanation
to Ruth Thornton, whom she had so long treated as a friend, or younger
sister. Ruth was moved and gratified by the unsought confidence; but her
genuine, up-looking veneration for Madeleine could not be increased by
the knowledge that she was the daughter of the late Duke de Gramont.
Madeleine conclu