there was no trace of the dazed and wretched child.
Dark forces lit her eyes and the relaxed lines of her lips tightened.

"Get in," she commanded. "Tell him to drive back, and get in." And when
Mrs. Talcott had taken her place beside her she went on in a low,
concentrated voice: "Is it not possible that she has joined that vile
seducer?"

Mrs. Talcott eyed her with the fixity of a lion-tamer. Their moment of
instinctive closeness had passed. "Now see here, Mercedes," she said; "I
advise you to be careful what you say."

"Careful! I am half mad! Between you all you will drive me mad!" said
Madame von Marwitz with intensity of fury. "You fill Karen's mind with
lies about my past--oh, there are two sides to every story! she shall
hear my side!--you drive her forth with your threats to hand her over to
the man she loathes, and she takes refuge--where else?--with that
miscreant. Why not? Where else had she to go? You say that she had no
money. We call now at the hotel. If he is gone, and if within the day we
do not hear that she is with Lise, we will send at once for detectives."

"You'd better control yourself, Mercedes," said Mrs. Talcott. "If Karen
ain't found it'll be a mighty ugly story for you to face up to, and if
she's found it won't be all plain sailing for you either; you've got to
pay the price for what you've done. But if it gets round that you drove
her out and then spread scandal about her, you'll do for yourself--just
keep your mind on that if you can."

"Scandal! What scandal shall I spread? If he disappears and she with
him, will the facts not shriek aloud? If she is found she will be found
by me. I will wire at once to Lise."

"We'll wire to Lise and we'll wire to Mr. Jardine, that's what we'll do.
Karen may have changed her mind. She may have felt shy of telling me she
had. She may have come to see that he's the thing she's got to hang on
to. What I hope for is that if she ain't in London already with him,
she's hiding somewhere about here and has sent for him herself."

"Ah, I understand your hope; it is of a piece with all your treachery,"
said Madame von Marwitz in a voice suffocated by conflicting angers. "If
she is with her husband he, too, will hear the story--the false, garbled
story of my crimes. He is my enemy, you know it; my malignant enemy; you
know that he will spread this affair broadcast. And you can rejoice in
this! You are glad for my disgrace and ruin!" Tears again streamed from
h