ld,
without friends, without money--had she any money, Miss Girond?"

"Oh, yes, yes!" Estelle exclaimed. "You did not know? Ah, she was so
particular; always exact in her economies, and sometimes I laughed at
her; but always she said perhaps some day she would have to play the
part of the--the--benevolent fairy to some poor one, and she must save
up--"

"Had she a bank account?"

Estelle nodded her head.

"Then she could not have got the money yesterday, if she wished to
withdraw it; she must have been in London this morning!"

"Perhaps," said Estelle. "But then! Look at the letter. She says if I am
her friend, I will not seek to know where she is."

"But that does not apply to me," he retorted--while his brain was filled
with all kinds of wild guesses as to whither Nina had fled.

"You are not her friend?" Estelle said, quietly.

"If I could only see her for three minutes!" he said, in his despair, as
he rose and went to the window. "Why should she go away from her friends
if she is in trouble? Besides ourselves and the people in the theatre,
she knows no one in this country. If she goes away back to her
acquaintances in Italy, she will not say a word; she will have no
sympathy, no distraction of any kind; and all the success she has gained
here will be as good as lost. It is like Nina to say she blames no one;
but her sending me back those bits of jewelry tells me who is to
blame--"

Estelle hesitated.

"Can I say?" she said, in rather low tones, and her eyes were cast down.
"Is it not breaking confidence? But Nina was speaking of you--she took
me into the shop in Piccadilly to show me the beautiful gold cup--and
when I said to her, 'It is another present soon--it is a wedding-ring
soon he will give you--'"

"Then it is you who have been putting those fancies into her head!" he
said, turning to her.

"I? Not I!" answered Estelle, with a quick indignation. "It is you! Ah,
perhaps you did not think--perhaps you are accustomed to have every
ones--to have every one--give homage to the great singer--you amuse the
time--what do you care? I put such things into her head? No!--not at
all! But you! You give her a wishing-cup--what is the wish? You come
here often--you are very kind to her--oh, yes, very kind, and Nina is
grateful for kindness--you sing with her--what do you call them?--songs
of love. Ah, yes, the _chansons amoureuses_ are very beautiful--very
charming--but sometimes they break hearts."

"I te