d deny all that concerns
you if you like--though I'm sure I don't know why you should care.
It's not to your discredit.'

'I could not very well deny it,' said the Primadonna thoughtfully.
Almost before the words had left her lips she was sorry she had
spoken.

'Does it happen to be true?' asked Lady Maud, with an encouraging
smile.

'Well, since you ask me--yes.' Margaret felt uncomfortable.

'Oh, I thought it might be,' answered Lady Maud. 'With all his good
qualities he has a very rough side. The story about me is perfectly
true too.'

Margaret was amazed at her friend's quiet cynicism.

'Not that about the--the envelope on the table--'

She stopped short.

'Oh yes! There were four thousand one hundred pounds in it. My husband
counted the notes.'

The singer leaned back in her chair and stared in unconcealed
surprise, wondering how in the world she could have been so completely
mistaken in her judgment of a friend who had seemed to her the best
type of an honest and fearless Englishwoman. Margaret Donne had not
been brought up in the gay world; she had, however, seen some aspects
of it since she had been a successful singer, and she did not
exaggerate its virtues; but somehow Lady Maud had seemed to be above
it, while living in it, and Margaret would have put her hand into the
fire for the daughter of her father's old friend, who now acknowledged
without a blush that she had taken four thousand pounds from Rufus Van
Torp.

'I suppose it would go against me even in an English court,' said Lady
Maud in a tone of reflection. 'It looks so badly to take money, you
know, doesn't it? But if I must be divorced, it really strikes me
as delightfully original to have it done by the Patriarch of
Constantinople! Doesn't it, my dear?'

'It's not usual, certainly,' said Margaret gravely.

She was puzzled by the other's attitude, and somewhat horrified.

'I suppose you think I'm a very odd sort of person,' said Lady Maud,
'because I don't mind so much as most women might. You see, I never
really cared for Leven, though if I had not thought I had a fancy for
him I wouldn't have married him. My people were quite against it. The
truth is, I couldn't have the husband I wanted, and as I did not mean
to break my heart about it, I married, as so many girls do. That's my
little story! It's not long, is it?'

She laughed, but she very rarely did that, even when she was amused,
and now Margaret's quick ear detected here an