ou have been told. Indeed, I happen to know that she even went so far
as to get down on her knees to Lord St. Ulmer and implore him to kill
her rather than to compel her to give up Geoff--and especially for a man
she loathed as she did the Count de Louvisan. It was useless, however.
That same night Lord St. Ulmer asked her to come to him alone in the
library at Ulmer Court. They were together for two hours. The next day
she accepted the Count de Louvisan."

"I see!" said Cleek. "Of course, his lordship told her something which
influenced her beyond her own will and desires. Do you happen to know
what that something was?"

"No. She has never told me one word beyond that she went into that
library with a breaking heart, and came out of it with a broken one."

"And in spite of all that, she still loves this father who compelled her
to give up all that life held, eh?"

"I didn't say that. I said that she was loyal to him, not that she loved
him. How could she love a father whom she had not seen since she was a
baby--whom she did not even know when he came back to claim her? Why,
she hadn't even a picture to tell her what he looked like, and in all
the years he was away he never wrote her so much as one line. A girl
couldn't love a father like that. She might like him, she might be
grateful to him, as Katharine is, for loading her with all the things
that money can buy; but to love him---- What is the matter, Mr. Cleek?
What in the world made you say 'Phew' like that?"

"Nothing! Do you happen to know if the late Count de Louvisan was ever
in Argentina, Miss Lorne?"

"No, I do not. Why?"

"Oh, mere idle curiosity, that's all. Turned up suddenly at Ulmer Court,
didn't he? Any idea from where?"

"Not the slightest. He called quite unexpectedly one evening after we
all--Kathie, his lordship, and I--had been over to the autumn races at
Fourfields. That was an unfortunate day altogether. We did not see the
conclusion of even the first race. Lord St. Ulmer was suddenly taken
ill, although he had been quite well a moment before, and was so bad
that we had to leave immediately. Nothing would do him but that we must
drive home as quickly as possible, so that he could consult our local
doctor."

Cleek glanced at her swiftly. "Hum-m-m! Bad as that, was he?" he asked.
"What did the local doctor think caused the illness? Or did his lordship
recover on the way home, and find it unnecessary to call him in at all?
Ah, he did, eh?