to Karen arrived Madame von Marwitz opened,
read and destroyed it. It revealed too plainly, in its ingenuous
solicitude and sorrow, the coercion under which Franz had departed. Yes;
the plan was there and they were all enmeshed in it; but what was to
happen if Karen would not marry Franz? How could that be made to match
the story she had now written to Mrs. Forrester? And what was to happen
if Karen refused to come with her? It would not do, Madame von Marwitz
saw that clearly, for an alienated Karen to be taken to the Lippheims'.
Comparisons and disclosures would ensue that would send the loom, with a
mighty whirr, weaving rapidly in an opposite direction to that of the
plan. Franz, in Germany, must be pacified, and Karen be carried off to
some lovely, lonely spot until the husband's suit was safely won. It was
not fatal to the plan that Karen should be supposed, finally, to refuse
to marry Franz; that might be mitigated, explained away when the time
came; but a loveless Karen at large in the world was a figure only less
terrifying than a Karen reunited to her husband. She felt as if she had
drawn herself up from the bottom of the well where Karen's flight had
precipitated her and as if, breathing the air, seeing the light of the
happy world, she swung in a circle, clutching her wet rope, horrible
depths below her and no helping hand put out to draw her to the brink.

Gregory's letter in answer to the letter she had sent to Mrs. Forrester,
with the request that he should be informed of its contents, came on the
second morning. It fortified her. There was no questioning; no doubt. He
formally assured her that he would at once take steps to set Karen free.

"Ah, he does not love her, that is evident," said Madame von Marwitz to
herself, and with a sense of quieted pulses. The letter was shown to
Karen.

Mrs. Forrester's note was not quite reassuring. It, also, accepted her
story; but its dismay constituted a lack of sympathy, even, Madame von
Marwitz felt, a reproach.

She wrote of Gregory's broken heart. She lamented the breach that had
come between him and Karen and made this disaster possible.

Miss Scrotton's paean was what it inevitably would be. From Tallie came
no word, and this implied that Tallie, too, was convinced, though
Tallie, no doubt, was furious, and would, as usual, lay the blame on
her.

Danger, however, lurked in Tallie's direction, and until she was safely
out of England with Karen she should