y when Raoul and I came to an understanding--Count
Godensky of the Russian Embassy. He called, and was let in by mistake
while Raoul was with me, and, just as he must have seen by our faces
that there was something to suspect, so I saw by his that he did
suspect. Oh, a hateful person! I've refused him three times. There are
some men so vain that they can never believe a woman really means to say
'no' to them. Count Godensky is one of those, and he's dangerous, too.
I'm afraid of him, since I've cared for Raoul, though I used to be
afraid of no one, when I'd only myself to think of. Raoul was going away
that very night. He had an errand to do for a woman who was a dear and
intimate friend of his dead mother. You must know of the Duchesse de
Montpellier? Well, it was for her: and Raoul is like her son. She has no
children of her own."

"I don't know her," I said, "but I've seen her; a charming looking
woman, about forty-five, with a gloomy-faced husband--a fellow who might
be rather a Tartar to live with. They were pointed out to me at Monte
Carlo one year, in the Casino, where the Duchess seemed to be enjoying
herself hugely, though the Duke had the air of being dragged in against
his will."

"No doubt he had been--or else he was there to fetch her out. Poor dear,
she's a dreadful gambler. It's in her blood! I She lost, I don't know
how much, at Monte Carlo on an 'infallible system' she had. She's afraid
of her husband, though she loves him immensely; and lately a craze she's
had for Bridge has cost her so much that she daren't tell the Duke, who
hates her gambling. She confessed to Raoul, and begged him to help
her--not with money, for he has none, but by taking a famous and
wonderful diamond necklace of hers to Amsterdam, selling the stones for
her there, and having them replaced with paste. It was all to be done
very secretly, of course, so that the Duke shouldn't know, and Raoul
hated it, but he couldn't refuse. He had no idea of telling me this
story, that day when he 'lost his head,' while we were bidding each
other good-bye before his journey. He didn't mention the name of the
Duchess, but said only that he had leave, and was going to Holland on
business. But while he was away a _dreadful_ thing happened--the most
ghastly misfortune--and as we were engaged to be married, he felt
obliged when he came back to let me know the worst."

"What was the dreadful thing that happened?" I asked, as she paused,
pressing he