ked Valerie rather petulantly.

'No, perhaps not--for a woman,' said Selpdorf reflectively, 'but since
there is no other----' he waited, then putting his forefinger under his
chin, he raised her face and looked into it. 'Unless indeed you prefer
someone----'

Her eyes, which met his with the clear direct glance they had not
inherited from himself, and her pale gravity dismayed him.

'Speak, my dear child. This is a matter very near my heart,' he said
quietly.

A tremulous smile came to Valerie's lips.

'And near mine--or I should not oppose you, father.'

Selpdorf pushed her away from him with a gentle hand.

'You don't know what you are doing,' he said shortly, and gazed out with
undisguised chagrin into the mists that overhung Revonde. Presently he
stood up.

'Well, well; it only goes to prove that the human element is a variable
quantity,' he remarked.

'Am I only a human element in your plans? Am I no more than that to
you?' She put her hands upon his shoulder.

M. Selpdorf drew her nearer and kissed her forehead.

'You know what you are to me, Valerie. I had hoped to join our interests
in all things, but----' he turned to the door.

'Father!' the girl cried, 'don't leave me like this. You don't
understand. I only knew by chance. He is too noble to----'

'Ah!' Selpdorf recollected Elmur's phrase, 'There is always the
picturesque captain of the Guard.' He paused before speaking. 'Then this
noble individual does not propose to take my daughter from me
altogether--only to entangle her in a sentimental embarrassment?'

'He made no claim upon me. He was compelled to--to speak--for my sake!'

'I will not ask for further confidences to-day, Valerie. But think over
the whole of our conversation. I can trust you to be just, even to Baron
von Elmur.'

M. Selpdorf knew that the longer an idea is brooded over, the harder it
becomes to part company with it. Therefore the forenoon was yet young
when von Elmur drove up to the Hotel du Chancelier in reply to a
summons. The German plot was not yet at an end. By judicious
manipulation, Selpdorf had gleaned a dim knowledge of Counsellor's
errand from the Duke, who was as wax in his supple hands. Counsellor's
return had already become one day overdue, and Selpdorf took advantage
of the delay to infuse doubts and troubled surmises into the Duke's
wavering mind.

He had recovered in some measure the royal confidence, and felt almost
certain that if the English propo