cked his lips. It was a good
berry.

"But what a terrible thing it would be if one should die suddenly, or
be thrown into a windowless dungeon, shut out from all these splendid
reaches?"

Maurice plucked another berry, but he did not eat it. Instinctively he
turned--and met a pair of eyes as hard and cold and gray as new steel.

"That," said he, "sounds like a threat."

"And if it were, Monsieur, and if it were?"

"If it were, I should say that you had discovered that I know too much.
I suspected from the first; the picture merely confirmed my suspicions.
I see now that it was thoughtless in me not to have told my friend; but
it is not too late."

"And why, I ask, have I not suppressed you before this?"

"Till to-day, Madame, you had not given me your particular
consideration." Then, as if the conversation was not interesting him, he
returned to the berries. "There's a fine one there. It's a little high;
but then!" He tiptoed, drew the branch from the wall, and snatched the
luscious fruit. "Ah!"

"Monsieur, attend to me; the berries can wait."

"Madame, the life of a good blackberry is short."

"To begin with, you say that I did not show you consideration. Few
princes have been shown like consideration."

"I was wrong. It is not every man that has a countess--and a pretty one,
too!--thrown at his head."

Madame was temporarily silenced by this retort; it upset her
calculations. She scrutinized the clean, smooth face, and she saw lines
which had hitherto escaped her notice. She was at last convinced that
she had to contend with a man, a man who had dealt with both men and
women. How deep was he? Could honors, such as she could give, and
money plumb the depths?... He was an American. She smiled the smile of
duplicity.

"Monsieur," she said, "do you lack wealth?"

"Yes, I lack it; but that is not to say that I desire it."

"Perhaps it is honors you desire?"

"Honors? To what greater honor may I aspire than that which is written
in my passports?"

"What is written in your passports?"

"That I am a citizen of the United States of America. It would not be
good taste in me to accept honors save those that my country may choose
to confer."

Again Madame found her foil turned aside. She began to lose patience.
Her boot patted the sod. "Monsieur, since the countess is not high
enough, since gold and honors have no charm, listen."

"I am listening, Madame."

"I permit you to witness the comic opera, bu