rs. Talcott perused the first page. Then she lifted her eyes to her
companion, who, averting hers with a sullen look, fixed them on the sea
outside. It was raining and the sea was leaden.

"Now just you listen to me, Mercedes Okraska," said Mrs. Talcott,
heavily emphasizing her words and leaning the hand that held the letter
on the writing-table, "I'll go straight up to London and tell the whole
story to Mr. Jardine and Mrs. Forrester--the same as I told it to Karen
with all that's happened here besides--I will as sure as my name's
Hannah Talcott--if you write one word of that shameful idea to your
friends. Lay down that pen."

Madame von Marwitz did not lay it down, but she turned in her chair and
confronted her accuser, though with averted eyes. "You say 'shameful.' I
say, yes; shameful, and true. She has not gone to her husband. She has
not gone to the Lippheims. I believe that he has joined her. I believe
that it was arranged. I believe that she is with him now."

"You can't look me in the eye and say you believe it, Mercedes," said
Mrs. Talcott.

Madame von Marwitz looked her in the eye, sombrely, and she then varied
her former statement. "He has pursued her. He has found her. He will try
to keep her. He is a depraved and dangerous man."

"We'll let him alone. We're done with him for good and all, I guess. My
point is this: don't you write any lies to your friends thinking that
you're going to whiten yourself by blackening Karen. I'm speaking the
sober truth when I say I'll go straight off to London and tell Mr.
Jardine and Mrs. Forrester the whole story, unless you write a letter,
right now, as you sit here, that I can pass."

Again averting her eyes, Madame von Marwitz clutched her pen in rigid
fingers and sat silent.

"It is blackmail! Tyranny!" she ejaculated presently.

"All right. Call it any name you like. But my advice to you, Mercedes,
is to pull yourself together and see this thing straight for your own
sake. I know what's the matter with you, you pitiful, silly thing; it's
this young man; it makes you behave like a distracted creature. But
don't you see as plain as can be that what Karen's probably done is to
go to London and that Mr. Jardine'll find her in a day or two. Now when
those two young people come together again, what kind of a story will
Karen tell her husband about you--what'll he think of you--what'll your
friends think of you--if they all find out that in addition to behaving
like