ed her story, "that you
have a right to set a high price on that document. You are a brave
girl."

"It's not much to be brave for a man you love, is it? And now I'm going
to give the thing to you, because I trust you, Mademoiselle de Renzie. I
know you'll pay. And I hope, oh, I _feel_, it won't hurt you as you
think it will."

Then, as if it had been some ordinary paper, she whipped from a long
pocket of a coat she wore, the treaty. She put it into my hand. I felt
it, I clasped it. I could have kissed it. The very touch of it made me
tremble.

"Do you know what this is, Miss Forrest?" I asked.

"No," she said. "It was yours, or Ivor's. Of course I didn't look."

And then there came the rap, rap, of the call-boy at the door. The
fifteen minutes were over. But I had the treaty. And I had to pay its
price.

CHAPTER XIX

MAXINE PLAYS THE LAST HAND OF THE GAME

When the play was over, I let Raoul drive home with me to supper. If
Godensky knew, as he may have known--since he seemed to know all my
movements--perhaps he thought that I was seeing Raoul for the last time,
and sending him away from me for ever. But, though the game was not in
my hands yet, the treaty was; and I had made up my mind to defy
Godensky.

I had almost promised that, if he held his hand, I would give Raoul up;
and never have I broken my word. But if I wrote a letter to Godensky in
the morning, saying I had changed my mind, that he could do his worst
against Raoul du Laurier and against me, for nothing should part us two
except death? Then he would have fair warning that I did not intend to
do the thing to which he had nearly forced me; and I would fight him,
when he tried to take revenge. But meanwhile, before he got that letter,
I would--I must--find some way of putting the treaty back in its place
at the Foreign Office.

It was too soon to dare to be happy, yet; for it was on the cards that,
even when I had saved Raoul from the consequences of my political
treachery, Godensky might still be able to ruin me with him. Yet, the
relief I felt after the all but hopeless anguish in which I had been
drowning for the last few days gave to my spirit a wild exhilaration
that night. I encouraged Raoul with hints that I had news of the
necklace, and said that, if he would let me come to him in his office as
soon as it was open in the morning, I might be able to surprise him
pleasantly. Of course, he answered that it would give him the greates