w lonely it is to go to a fresh place. She
happened to say how desolate she should feel at first in Berlin. I
remarked that I knew the city well, and then she wished we were going. I
pledge you my honor that she said 'we.' Never dreaming that you would
make any opposition, I said that I should be very glad to spend the next
few weeks in Berlin. I cannot tell how it really was, but I found that
it was all settled and arranged almost before I knew it. Now, you would
not surely wish me to draw back? Come with me to Berlin, and I will show
you how happy I will make you."

"No," she replied; "I will share your heart with no one. Unless I have
all I will have none. I will not go to Berlin, and you must give up
Madame Vanira," she continued; "Lance, you cannot hesitate, you must see
your duty; a married man wants no woman friend but his wife. Why should
you spend long hours and whole days _tete-a-tete_ with a stranger? Of
what can you find to speak? You know in your heart that you are wrong.
You say no. Now in the name of common sense and fairness, let me ask,
would you like me to make of any man you know such a friend as you have
made of Madame Vanira?"

"That is quite another thing," he replied.

Lady Chandos laughed, sadly.

"The usual refuge of a man when he is brought to bay," she said. "No
words, no arguments will be of any use to me; I shall never be really
friends with you until you give up Madame Vanira."

"Then we will remain enemies," he replied. "I will never give up a true
friend for the caprice of any woman," he replied, "even though that
woman be my wife."

"Neither will I consent to go to Berlin," she answered, gravely.

"Then I must go alone," he said; "I will not be governed by caprices
that have in them neither reason nor sense."

"Then," cried Lady Marion, "it is war to the knife between us!"

"War, if you will," said Lord Chandos; "but always remember you can put
an end to the warfare when you will!"

"I shall appeal to Lady Lanswell and to the Duke of Lester," said Lady
Marion, and her husband merely answered with a bow.

With them it was indeed "war to the knife." Such was the Gordian knot
that Lady Lanswell had to untie, and it was the most difficult task of
her life.

On the same evening when that conversation took place, Lord Chandos went
to the opera, where Leone was playing "Anne Boleyn." He waited until she
came out and was seated in her carriage; then he stood for a few moments
lean