hey were the same.

She saw him as she was driving home, and, stopping the carriage, asked
him to drive with her.

"Lance, I have something very serious to say to you. There is no use
beating about the bush, Marion is very ill and very unhappy."

"I am sorry for it, mother, but add also she is very jealous and very
foolish."

"My dear Lance, your wife loves you--you know it, she loves you with all
her heart and soul. If your friendship with Madame Vanira annoys her,
why not give it up?"

"I choose to keep my independence as a man; I will not allow any one to
dictate to me what friends I shall have, whom I shall give up or
retain."

"In some measure you are right, Lance," said the countess, "and so far
as gentleman friends are concerned, I should always choose my own; but
as this is a lady, of whom Lady Marion has certain suspicions, I should
most certainly give her up."

"My wife has no right to be jealous," he said angrily; "it does not add
to my love for her."

"Let me speak seriously to you, Lance," said the countess. "Marion is so
unhappy that I should not wonder if she were really ill over it; now why
not do as she wishes? Madame Vanira can be nothing to you--Marion is
everything. Why not give her up?"

A certain look of settled determination that came to her son's face made
the countess pause and wonder. She had seen it there for the first and
last time when she had asked her son to renounce his young wife, and now
she saw it again. Strange that his next words should seem like an answer
to her thoughts.

"Mother," he said, "do not ask me; you persuaded me to give up all the
happiness of my life, years ago--do not try me a second time. I refuse,
absolutely refuse, to gratify my wife's foolish, jealous wish. I say,
emphatically, that I will not give up my friendship for Madame Vanira."

Then my lady looked fixedly at him.

"Lance," she said, "what is Madame Vanira to you?"

He could not help the flush that burned his handsome, angry face, and
that flush aroused his mother's curiosity. "Have you known her long? Did
you know her before your marriage, Lance? I remember now that I was
rather struck by her manner. She reminds me forcibly of some one. Poor
Marion declares there is some tie between you. What can it be?"

She mused for some minutes, then looked into her son's face.

"Great Heaven, Lance, it can never be!" she cried. "A horrible idea has
occurred to me, and yet it is not possible."

He m