l outlines.

When this was accomplished Madame von Marwitz rose. "Thank you," she
uttered. She moved towards the door of her room.

"What are you going to do now, Mercedes?" Mrs. Talcott inquired. Her
eyes, which deepened and darkened, as if all her years of silent
watchfulness opened long vistas in them, were fixed upon Mercedes.

"I am going to pack and return to my home," Madame von Marwitz replied.

"Well," said Mrs. Talcott, "you'll want me to pack for you, I expect."

Madame von Marwitz had opened her door and her hand was on the
door-knob. She paused so and again, for a long moment, she made no
reply. "Thank you," she then repeated. But she turned and looked at Mrs.
Talcott. "You have been a traitor to me," she said after she had
contemplated her for some moments, "you, in whom I completely trusted.
You have ruined me in the eyes of those I love."

"Yes, I've gone back on you, Mercedes, that's a fact," said Mrs.
Talcott.

"You have handed Karen over to bondage," Madame von Marwitz went on.
"She and this man are utterly unsuited. I would have freed her and given
her to a more worthy mate." Her voice had the dignity of a disinterested
and deep regret.

Mrs. Talcott made no reply. The long vistas of her eyes dwelt on
Mercedes. After another moment of this mutual contemplation Madame von
Marwitz closed the door, though she still kept her hand on the
door-knob.

"May I ask what you have been saying of me to Mrs. Forrester, to Mr.
Jardine?"

"Well, as to Mr. Jardine, Mercedes," said Mrs. Talcott, "there was no
need of saying anything, was there, if I turned out right in what I told
him I suspected. He sees I'm right. He'd been fed up, along with the
rest of them, on lies, and Karen can help him out with the details if he
wants to ask for them. As for the old lady, I gave her the truth of the
story about Karen running away. I made her see, and see straight, that
your one idea was to keep Karen's husband from getting her back because
you knew that if he did the truth about you would come out. I let you
down as easy as I could and put it that you weren't responsible exactly
for the things you said when you went off your head in a rage and that
you were awful sorry when you found Karen had taken you at your word and
made off. But that old lady feels mighty sick, Mercedes, and I allow
she'll feel sicker when she's seen Mr. Jardine. As for Miss Scrotton, I
saw her, too, and she's come out strong; you've got a fri