rriers which are so
easy from the outside and unclimbable from within. She had thrust into
his hands a power greater than, for the moment, he knew how to wield. It
was characteristic of him to think first whither it would lead him, and
next how he could turn it to good account.

Some instinct told him that this was a different love from any that he
had met before. The same instinct made him understand that it was crying
aloud to be convinced; and, oddly enough, he had told her the truth.

"See," he said, "here is a copy of the list, and your father's name is
not on it. See, here is Napoleon's letter, expressing satisfaction with
my work here and in Konigsberg, where I have been served by an agent
of my own choosing. Many have climbed to a throne with less than that
letter for their first step. See...!" he opened another drawer. It was
full of money.

"See, again!" he said with a low laugh, and from an iron chest he
took two or three bags which fell upon the table with the discreet
unmistakable chink of gold. "That is the Emperor's. He trusts me, you
see. These bags are mine. They are to be sent back to France before I
follow the army to Russia. What I have told you is true, you see."

It was an odd way of wooing, but this man rarely made a mistake. There
are many women who, like Mathilde Sebastian, are readier to love success
than console failure.

"See," he said, after a moment's hesitation, opening another drawer
in his writing-table, "before I went away I had intended to ask you to
remember me."

As he spoke he drew a jewel-case from under some papers, and slowly
opened it. He had others like it in the drawer; for emergencies.

"But I never hoped," he went on, "to have an opportunity of seeing you
thus alone--to ask you never to forget me. You permit me?"

He clasped the diamonds round her throat, and they glittered on the
poor, cheap dress, which was the best she had. She looked down at them
with a catching breath, and for an instant the glitter was reflected in
her eyes.

She had come asking for reassurance, and he gave her diamonds; which
is an old tale told over and over again. For in human love we have to
accept not what we want, but what is given to us.

"No one in Dantzig," he said, "is so glad to hear that your father has
escaped as I am."

And, with the glitter still lurking in her dark-grey eyes, she believed
him. He drew her cloak round her, and gently brought her hood over her
hair.

"I mu