me upon me since Madame la Comtesse left America. Now that I
seek shelter in the grave I am free to warn Monsieur that the
Prince of S. L. is his determined and merciless enemy, and that
he has already made an unlawful use of his position in the Society
for the sake of private vengeance. If monsieur would make a
powerful friend he should seek the Lady Muriel Carey.

"Monsieur will be so good as to destroy this when read. My will
is in my trunk.
"Your Grace's faithful servant,
"Jules Duson."

Mr. Sabin read this letter carefully through to the end. Then he put it
into his pocket-book and quickly rang the bell.

"You had better send for a doctor at once," he said to the waiter who
appeared. "My servant appears to have suffered from some sudden illness.
I am afraid that he is quite dead."

CHAPTER XXIX

"You spoke, my dear Lucille," the Duchess of Dorset said, "of your
departure. Is not that a little premature?"

Lucille shrugged her beautiful shoulders, and leaned back in her
corner of the couch with half-closed eyes. The Duchess, who was very
Anglo-Saxon, was an easy person to read, and Lucille was anxious to know
her fate.

"Why premature?" she asked. "I was sent for to use my influence with
Reginald Brott. Well, I did my best, and I believe that for days it
was just a chance whether I did not succeed. However, as it happened,
I failed. One of his friends came and pulled him away just as he was
wavering. He has declared himself now once and for all. After his speech
at Glasgow he cannot draw back. I was brought all the way from America,
and I want to go back to my husband."

The Duchess pursed her lips.

"When one has the honour, my dear," she said, "of belonging to so
wonderful an organisation as this we must not consider too closely the
selfish claims of family. I am sure that years ago I should have laughed
at any one who had told me that I, Georgina Croxton, should ever belong
to such a thing as a secret society, even though it had some connection
with so harmless and excellent an organisation as the Primrose League."

"It does seem remarkable," Lucille murmured.

"But look what terrible times have come upon us," the Duchess continued,
without heeding the interruption. "When I was a girl a Radical was a
person absolutely without consideration. Now all our great cities are
hot-beds of Socialism and--and anarch