g to me. You know well that. He has come and can go
when he please. I come here to follow you--to be companion to you, to
oblige you--and now you say you go and leave me in this detestable
barrack. If I am here alone, I will be revenged."

"You shall go back with me if you wish it."

"At eight o'clock in the morning--and see, it is now eleven; while you
have been wandering about alone with my brother in the dark! No; I will
not go so early morning as that. To-morrow is Saturday--you was to
remain till Tuesday."

"You may do as you please. I will go at eight to-morrow."

"Very well. You go at eight, very well. And who will pay for the 'beels'
when you are gone, Lady Ongar?"

"I have already ordered the bill up to-morrow morning. If you will allow
me to offer you twenty pounds, that will bring you to London when you
please to follow."

"Twenty pounds! What is twenty pounds? No; I will not have your twenty
pounds." And she pushed away from her the two notes which Lady Ongar had
already put upon the table. "Who is to pay me for the loss of all my
time? Tell me that. I have devoted myself to you. Who will pay me for
that?"

"Not I, certainly, Madam Gordeloup."

"Not you! You will not pay me for my time--for a whole year I have been
devoted to you! You will not pay me, and you send me away in this way?
By Gar, you will be made to pay--through the nose."

As the interview was becoming unpleasant, Lady Ongar took her candle and
went away to bed, leaving the twenty pounds on the table. As she left
the room she knew that the money was there, but she could not bring
herself to pick it up and restore it to her pocket. It was improbable,
she thought, that Madam Gordeloup would leave it to the mercy of the
waiters; and the chances were that the notes would go into the pocket
for which they were intended.

And such was the result. Sophie, when she was left alone, got up from
her seat, and stood for some moments on the rug, making her
calculations. That Lady Ongar should be very angry about Count
Pateroff's presence Sophie had expected; but she had not expected that
her friend's anger would be carried to such extremity that she would
pronounce a sentence of banishment for life. But, perhaps, after all, it
might be well for Sophie herself that such sentence should be carried
out. This fool of a woman with her income, her park, and her rank, was
going to give herself--so said Sophie to herself--to a young, handsome,
proud, p