in the land!' And she called him by his first name, and
asked him how he could do it."

"And what did Mr. Blake say?" returned I, a little taken back myself at
this result of my efforts with Fanny.

"O, I did'nt wait to hear. I did'nt wait for anything. If folks was
going to talk about such things as that, I thought I had better be
anywhere than listening at the keyhole. I went right up stairs I can
tell you."

"And whom have you told of what you heard in the half dozen hours that
have gone by?"

"Nobody; how could you think so mean of me when I promised, and--"

It is not necessary to go any further into this portion of the
interview.

The Countess De Mirac possessed to its fullest extent the present fine
lady's taste for bric-a-brac. So much I had learned in my inquiries
concerning her. Remembering this, I took the bold resolution of
profiting by this weakness of hers to gain admission to her presence,
she being the only one sharing Mr. Blake's mysterious secret. Borrowing
a valuable antique from a friend of mine at that time in the business,
I made my appearance the very next day at her apartments, and sending
in an urgent request to see Madame, by the trim negress who answered my
summons, waited in some doubt for her reply.

It came all too soon; Madame was ill and could see no one. I was not,
however, to be baffled by one rebuff. Handing the basket I held to the
girl, I urged her to take it in and show her mistress what it contained,
saying it was a rare article which might never again come her way.

The girl complied, though with a doubtful shake of the head which was
anything but encouraging. Her incredulity, however, must have been
speedily rebuked, for she almost immediately returned without the
basket, saying Madame would see me.

My first thoughts upon entering the grand lady's presence, was that the
girl had been mistaken, for I found the Countess walking the floor in an
abstracted way, drying a letter she had evidently but just completed, by
shaking it to and fro with an unsteady hand; the placque I had brought,
lying neglected on the table.

But at sight of my respectful form standing with bent head in the
doorway, she hurriedly thrust the letter into a book and took up the
placque. As she did so I marked her well and almost started at the
change I observed in her since that evening at the Academy. It was not
only that she was dressed in some sort of loose dishabille that was
in eminent contra