wine thoughtfully.

"The Prince is, I believe, right," he remarked. "It is for that reason,
doubtless, that I have heard of men whose lives have been threatened,
who have deposited in safe places a sealed statement of the danger in
which they find themselves, with an account of its source, so that if
they should come to an end in any way mysterious there may be evidence
against their murderers."

"A very reasonable and judicious precaution," the Prince remarked with
glittering eyes. "Only if the poison was indeed of such a nature that it
was not possible to trace it nothing worse than suspicion could ever be
the lot of any one."

Mr. Sabin helped himself carefully to salad, and resumed the discussion
with his next course.

"Perhaps not," he admitted. "But you must remember that suspicion is of
itself a grievous embarrassment. No man likes to feel that he is being
suspected of murder. By the bye, is it known whom the unfortunate person
was?"

"The servant of a French nobleman who is staying in the hotel," Mr.
Brott remarked. "I heard as much as that."

Mr. Sabin smiled. Lady Carey glanced at him meaningly.

"You have worried the Prince quite sufficiently," she whispered. "Change
the subject."

Mr. Sabin bowed.

"You are very considerate--to the Prince," he said.

"It is perhaps for your sake," she answered. "And as for the
Prince--well, you know, or you should know, for how much he counts with
me."

Mr. Sabin glanced at her curiously. She was a little flushed as though
with some inward excitement. Her eyes were bright and soft. Despite a
certain angularity of figure and her hollow cheeks she was certainly one
of the most distinguished-looking women in the room.

"You are so dense," she whispered in his ear, "wilfully dense, perhaps.
You will not understand that I wish to be your friend."

He smiled with gentle deprecation.

"Do you blame me," he murmured, "if I seem incredulous? For I am an old
man, and you are spoken of always as the friend of my enemy, the friend
of the Prince."

"I wonder," she said thoughtfully, "if this is really the secret of your
mistrust? Do you indeed fear that I have no other interest in life save
to serve Saxe Leinitzer?"

"As to that," he answered, "I cannot say. Yet I know that only a few
months ago you were acting under orders from him. It is you who brought
Lucille from America. It was through you that the first blow was struck
at my happiness."

"Cannot I atone?" s