Arnold, it is a foolish fancy. You belong
to different hemispheres; you are twice her age. It will be years before
she can even realize what life and love may be. Give it all up. She is
in safe hands now. Come back to London with me, and Monsieur Feurgeres
shall go free."

"Monsieur Feurgeres, Madame, thanks you!"

He had entered the room softly, and stood at the end of the screen. Lady
Delahaye's face darkened.

"May I ask, sir, how long you have been playing the eavesdropper?" she
demanded.

"Not so long, Madame, as I should have desired," he answered, "yet long
enough to understand this. My young friend here seems to be trying to
bargain with you for my safety. Madame, I cannot allow it. If your
silence is indeed to be bought, the terms must be arranged between you
and me."

She looked at him a trifle insolently.

"I have already explained to Mr. Greatson," she remarked, "that
bargaining between you and me is impossible because you have nothing to
offer which could tempt me."

"And Mr. Greatson has?"

"That, Monsieur," she answered, "is between Mr. Greatson and myself."

Monsieur Feurgeres stood his ground.

"Lady Delahaye," he said, "I want you to listen to me for a moment. It
is not a justification which I am attempting. It is just a word or two
of explanation, to which I trust you will not refuse to listen."

"If you think it worth while," she answered coldly.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Who can tell! I have the fancy, however, to assure you that what took
place that day at the Cafe Grand was not the impulsive act of a man
inspired with a homicidal mania, but was the necessary outcome of a long
sequence of events. You know the peculiar relations existing between
Isobel and myself. I had not the right to approach her, or to assume any
overt act of guardianship. Any association with me would at once have
imperilled any chance she may have possessed of being restored to her
rightful position at Waldenburg. I accordingly could only watch over her
by means of spies. This I have always done."

"With what object, Monsieur Feurgeres?" Lady Delahaye asked. "You could
never have interfered."

"The care of Isobel--the distant care of her--was a charge laid upon me
by her mother," Feurgeres answered. "It was therefore sacred. I trusted
to Fate to find those who might intervene where I dared not, and Fate
sent me at a very critical moment Mr. Arnold Greatson. Lady Delahaye, to
speak ill of a woman is no