ok here, Barebone," he cried. "We must not quarrel; we cannot afford
to do that. And after all, what does it matter? You are only giving
yourself the benefit of the doubt--that is all. For there is a doubt.
You may be what you--what we say you are, after all. It is certain
enough that Marie Antoinette and Fersen were in daily correspondence.
They were both clever--two of the cleverest people in France--and they
were both desperate. Remember that. Do you think that they would have
failed in a matter of such intense interest to her, and therefore to
him? All these pretenders, Naundorff and the others, have proved that
quite clearly, but none has succeeded in proving that he was the man."

"And do you think that I shall be able to prove that I am the man--when
I am not?"

By way of reply Dormer Colville turned again to the fireplace and took
down the print of Louis XVI. engraved from a portrait painted when he
was still Dauphin. A mirror stood near, and Colville came to the table
carrying the portrait in one hand, the looking-glass in the other.

"Here," he said, eagerly. "Look at one and then at the other. Look in
the mirror and then at the portrait. Prove it! Why, God has proved it
for you."

"I do not think we had better bring Him into the question," was the
retort: an odd reflex of Captain Clubbe's solid East Anglian piety. "No.
If we go on with the thing at all, let us be honest enough to admit
to ourselves that we are dishonest. The portrait in that locket points
clearly enough to the Truth."

"The portrait in that locket is of Marie Antoinette," replied Colville,
half sullenly. "And no one can ever prove anything contrary to that. No
one except myself knows of--of this doubt which you have stumbled upon.
De Gemosac, Parson Marvin, Clubbe--all of them are convinced that your
father was the Dauphin."

"And Miss Liston?"

"Miriam Liston--she also, of course. And I believe she knew it long
before I told her."

Barebone turned and looked at him squarely in the eyes. Colville
wondered a second time why Loo Barebone reminded him of Captain Clubbe
to-night.

"What makes you believe that?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know. But that isn't the question. The question is about
the future. You see how things are in France. It is a question of Louis
Napoleon or a monarchy--you see that. Unless you stop him he will be
Emperor before a year is out, and he will drag France in the gutter.
He is less a Bonaparte than you are a