sign of weakness. Her eyes
were filled with cold resentment.

"Well," she said, "I am your prisoner. I listen."

"You are after that packet, I suppose?"

"What sagacity!" she scoffed. "I trusted you with it, and you behaved
like a brute. You kept it. It has nothing to do with you. You have no
right to it."

"Let us understand one another, once and for all," he suggested. "I will
not even discuss the question of rightful or wrongful possession. I have
the packet, and I am going to keep it. You cannot cajole it put of me,
you cannot steal it from me. To-morrow I shall take it to London and
deliver it to my friend at the Foreign Office. Nothing could induce me
to change my mind."

She seemed suddenly to be caught up in the vortex of a new emotion. All
the bitterness passed from her expression. She fell on her knees by
his side, sought his hands, and lifted her face, full of passionate
entreaty, to his. Her eyes were dimmed with tears, her voice piteous.

"Do not be so cruel, so hard," she begged. "I swear before Heaven that
there is no treason in those papers, that they are the one necessary
link in a great, humanitarian scheme. Be generous, Mr. Orden. Julian!
Give it back to me. It is mine. I swear--"

His hands gripped her shoulders. She was conscious that he was looking
past her, and that there was horror in his eyes. The words died away on
her lips. She, too, turned her head. The door of the sitting room
had been opened from outside. Lord Maltenby was standing there in his
dressing gown, his hand stretched out behind him as though to keep some
one from following him.

"Julian," he demanded sternly, "what is the meaning of this?"

For a moment Julian was speechless, bereft of words, or sense of
movement. Catherine still knelt there, trembling. Then Lord Maltenby was
pushed unceremoniously to one side. It was the Princess who entered.

"Catherine!" she screamed. "Catherine!"

The girl rose slowly to her feet. The Princess was leaning on the
back of a chair, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief and sobbing
hysterically. Lord Shervinton's voice was heard outside.

"What the devil is all this commotion?" he demanded.

He, too, crossed the threshold and remained transfixed. The Earl closed
the door firmly and stood with his back against it.

"Come," he said, "we will have no more spectators to this disgraceful
scene. Julian, kindly remember you are not in your bachelor apartments.
You are in the house over