s
sane."

The argument silenced me. I knew--I had known for a long time--that
jealousy could rouse a demon in Raoul. And only to-night he had reminded
me that he was a "jealous brute." I remembered what answer he had made
when I asked him what he would do if I deceived him. He said that he
would kill me, and kill himself after. As he spoke, the blood had
streamed up to his forehead, and streamed back again, leaving him pale.
A flash like steel had shot out of his eyes--the dear eyes that are not
cold. It was true, as this cruel wretch reminded me, Raoul would do
things under the torture of jealousy that he would cut off his hand
sooner than do when his own, sweet, poet-nature was in ascendancy.

"As a proof of what I say," Godensky went on, "du Laurier did wait, did
hear from me the place where you were to stop and pick me up. And if it
wouldn't be the worst of form to bet, I'd bet that he found some way of
getting there in time to see that I had told the truth."

"You coward!" I stammered.

"On the contrary, a brave man. I've heard that du Laurier is a fine
shot, and that very few men in Paris can touch him with the foils. So
you see--"

"You want to frighten me!" I exclaimed.

"You misjudge me in every way."

My only answer was to tell Marianne to press the button which gives the
signal for my chauffeur to stop. Instantly the electric carriage slowed
down, then came to a standstill. My man opened the door and Count
Godensky submitted to my will. Nevertheless, he was far from being in a
submissive mood, as I did not need to be reminded by the tone of his
voice when he said "au revoir."

Nothing could have been more polite than the words or his way of
speaking them, as he stood in the street with his hat in his hand. But
to me they meant a threat, and as a threat they were intended.

My talk with Godensky at the stage door, my pause to pick him up, and my
second pause to set him down, had all taken time, of which I had had
little enough at the starting, if I were to meet Ivor Dundas when he
arrived. It was two or three minutes after midnight, or so my watch
said, when we drew up before the gate of my high-walled garden in the
quiet Rue d'Hollande.

A little while ago I had been ready to seize upon almost any expedient
for keeping Raoul away from my house to-night, but now, after what I had
just heard from Godensky, I prayed to see him waiting for me.

Nobody (except Ivor, concerning whom I'd given orders)