boudoir, exquisitely
attired. She, who knew so well the effect of every fold in her dress, of
every flower she wore or carried; she, who had studied the art of
looking beautiful more completely than any other woman, had not
neglected her most potent charm. She wore a dinner dress of white silk,
with crimson flowers, that suited her dark, glowing beauty to
perfection. An elegant toilet! No jewels, but a massive golden bracelet
on one arm, and a golden chain of exquisite workmanship round her neck.

"I knew you would come," she said, looking up with a smile as Basil was
shown into her boudoir; "I knew you would not fail me. We shall have
time for a long conversation. Lord Lisle never reaches home until a
quarter of an hour before dinner, and then he has to hurry. Our guests
will not arrive until nearly eight, so we shall not be interrupted."

He looked round that little fairy nook, wondering at its elegance,
wondering at the soft, rosy light, at the fragrance of the white
daphnes, but more than all at the queenly loveliness of the beautiful
woman before him.

She sat in the very heart of the crimson glow, her glistening silken
dress sweeping in rich waves, and quite sure that her attitude, like
everything else about her, was perfect. She held out her hand to him,
with a smile that would have bewildered any man older and wiser than he.

"Sit down here," she said, pointing to a velvet fauteuil; "I am going to
make you my judge. Ah, Basil, for this one night I may call you Basil;
perhaps after you have heard what I have to say, you will never be my
knight again; it may change you."

"I shall belong to you, and ask no greater happiness than to serve you
until I die," he replied,

A fan lay on the table by her side, with jeweled handle, and made of
white, soft feathers. She opened it and quietly stirred the warm,
perfumed air.

"I could only tell my trouble to you," she began, in her soft, caressing
voice. "You will understand me, because you know what it is to have
wishes, hopes and aspirations that are never realized. You know what it
is to be unworldly and unlike others.

"I was but a girl when I was married, Basil--an innocent, unsuspecting
girl, just seventeen. I might plead, in excuse of what followed, that I
was married without my own inclination being consulted--unwillingly
sacrificed to money that never has done me any good, and never will. I
might plead my youth, my unhappiness, the utter want of congenialit