mother in the same breath!" he cried.

"Ah, but I will--I must! You want the truth--you said just now you
wanted only the truth. Then you shall hear the truth! Yes, it is as you
have evidently suspected. Louis Dupre loves Claire, and she"--her voice
faltered, then grew firmer--"she may have had for him a little
sentiment. Who can tell? You have not been at much pains to make her
happy. But what is true, what is certain, is that she rejected his love.
To-day they were to part--for ever."

Her voice failed again, then once more it strengthened and hardened.

"That is why he in a moment of folly--I admit it was in a moment of
folly--asked her to come out on his last cruise in the _Neptune_. When
you came I was expecting them back any moment. But, Jacques, do not be
afraid. I swear to you that no one shall ever know. Admiral de Saint
Vilquier will do anything for us Kergouets; I myself will go to him,
and--and explain."

But Jacques de Wissant scarcely heard the eager, pitiful words.

He had thrust his wife from his mind, and her place had been taken by
his honour--his honour and that of his children, of happy,
light-hearted Clairette and Jacqueline. For what seemed a long while he
said nothing; then, with all the anger gone from his voice, he spoke,
uttered a fiat.

"No," he said quietly. "You must leave the Admiral to me, Madeleine. You
were going to Italy to-night, were you not? That, I take it, _is_ true."

She nodded impatiently. What did her proposed journey to Italy matter
compared with her beloved Claire's present peril?

"Well, you must carry out your plan, my poor Madeleine. You must go away
to-night."

She stared at him, her face at last blotched with tears, and a look of
bewildered anguish in her eyes.

"You must do this," Jacques de Wissant went on deliberately, "for
Claire's sake, and for the sake of Claire's children. You haven't
sufficient self-control to endure suspense calmly, secretly. You need
not go farther than Paris, but those whom it concerns will be told that
Claire has gone with you to Italy. There will always be time to tell the
truth. Meanwhile, the Admiral and I will devise a plan. And perhaps"--he
waited a moment--"the truth will never be known, or only known to a very
few people--people who, as you say, will understand."

He had spoken very slowly, as if weighing each of his words, but it was
quickly, with a queer catch in his voice, that he added--"I ask you to
do this, my sister