d, and will own it for many years
to come, their position is unassailable. It is the worst country in
Europe for us to work in. The very climate and the dispositions of the
people are inimical to intrigue. It is Muriel Carey who brought the
Society here. It was a mistake. The country is in no need of it. There
is no scope for it."

"If only one could get beyond Saxe Leinitzer," Mr. Sabin said.

She shook her head.

"Behind him," she said, "there is only the one to whom all reference is
forbidden. And there is no man in the world who would be less likely to
listen to an appeal from you--or from me."

"After all," Mr. Sabin said, "though Saxe Leinitzer is our enemy, I
am not sure that he can do us any harm. If he declines to release
you--well, when the twelve months are up you are free whether he wishes
it or not. He has put me outside the pale. But this is not, or never
was, a vindictive Society. They do not deal in assassinations. In this
country at least anything of the sort is rarely attempted. If I were
a young man with my life to live in the capitals of Europe I should be
more or less a social outcast, I suppose. But I am proof against that
sort of thing."

Lucille looked a little doubtful.

"The Prince," she said, "is an intriguer of the old school. I know that
in Vienna he has more than once made use of more violent means than he
would dare to do here. And there is an underneath machinery very seldom
used, I believe, and of which none of us who are ordinary members know
anything at all, which gives him terrible powers."

Mr. Sabin nodded grimly.

"It was worked against me in America," he said, "but I got the best of
it. Here in England I do not believe that he would dare to use it. If
so, I think that before now it would have been aimed at Brott. I have
just read his Glasgow speech. If he becomes Premier it will lead to
something like a revolution."

She sighed.

"Brott is a clever man, and a strong man," she said. "I am sorry for
him, but I do not believe that he will never become Prime Minister of
England."

Mr. Sabin sipped his wine thoughtfully.

"I believe," he said, "that intrigue is the resource of those who have
lived their lives so quickly that they have found weariness. For these
things to-day interest me very little. I am only anxious to have you
back again, Lucille, to find ourselves on our way to our old home."

She laughed softly.

"And I used to think," she said, "that after all I