er selfish weaklings, or cruel, hateful brutes
like Ladislaus, or clever, successful financiers like you, my uncle.
That is enough! Something we women must be always sacrificed to."

"Well, you don't know Englishmen--"

"Yes, I remember my father very well; cold and hard to my darling
mother"--and here her voice trembled a little--"he only thought of
himself, and to rush to England for sport--and leave her alone for
months and months: selfish and vile--all of them!"

"In spite of that I have found you an English husband whom you will be
good enough to take, madame," Francis Markrute announced
authoritatively.

She gave a little laugh--if anything so mirthless could be called a
laugh.

"You have no power over me; I shall do no such thing."

"I think you will," the financier said with quiet assurance, "if I know
you. There are terms, of course--"

She glanced at him sharply: the expression in those somber eyes was
often alert like a wild animal's, about to be attacked; only she had
trained herself generally to keep the lids lowered.

"What are the terms?" she asked.

And as she spoke Francis Markrute thought of the black panther in the
Zoo, which he was so fond of going to watch on Sunday mornings, she
reminded him so of the beast at the moment.

He had been constrained up to this, but now, the question being one of
business, all his natural ease of manner returned, and he sat down
opposite her and blew rings of smoke from his cigar.

"The terms are that the boy Mirko, your half-brother, shall be provided
for for life. He shall live with decent people, and have his talent
properly cultivated--"

He stopped abruptly and remained silent.

Countess Shulski clasped her hands convulsively in her lap, and with all
the pride and control of her voice there was a note of anguish, too,
which would have touched any heart but one so firmly guarded as Francis
Markrute's.

"Ah, God!" she said so low that he could only just hear her, "I have
paid the price of my body and soul once for them. It is too much to ask
it of me a second time--"

"That is as you please," said the financier.

He seldom made a mistake in his methods with people. He left nothing to
chance; he led up the conversation to the right point, fired his bomb,
and then showed absolute indifference. To display interest in a move,
when one was really interested, was always a point to the adversary. He
maintained interest could be simulated when necessary