this, and,
innocent as I am, I should be separated from him and disgraced. It is
from this I want you to save me. If I were married to a noble, generous
man, I should go to him at once, and tell him the truth. If Lord Lisle
knew it, he would use it as a pretext for separating himself from me.
Basil, you are my knight--you must save me; you must get those letters."

"I will," he replied, "at any cost."

"I tremble to think how much money, I, in my cowardly fear, have lent
him. He will want more and more, until he has drained a fortune, and I
shall be no safer in the end. I will lend him no more money, Basil; but
you, my only friend, shall get the letters."

"I will. How shall I do it! Oh, Lady Lisle, let me fight him--let me
punish him as he deserves!"

"No," she said; "he is too cunning. If you were to offer to fight with
him, he would know it was for my sake, and he would so place the letters
as to fall into my husband's hands if anything happened to him."

But the hot flush did not fade from Basil's face.

"I must thrash him," he cried.

"No; for my sake, and because you would do me true service, you must
not," she said.

"I will give him all my fortune for the letters," he said.

"That would not do--he would take your money first, then, holding the
letters, would still want more. I will tell you the only plan by which
you can help me. Go boldly into the room and bring the letters away."

"But that looks so much like stealing them," he said. "Let me fight him
and take them because I win."

"No," she said, sadly. "If you will not help me, as I wish, I must
forego all aid, and suffer on."

"You have but to command," he cried, "and I will obey."

"This is the count's address," she said. "Go into his rooms; you will
find there an ivory casket; he keeps the letters there; he told me so."

"I will do it," he said, quietly.

A beautiful light came into her eyes.

"I knew you would save me, Basil," she said, tenderly. "When will you do
it?"

"I will make my first essay tonight. I shall not rest again until it is
done."

"Go to his rooms," she said; "ask for him; if they tell you he is not
in, say you will wait for him; then, while you are in the room, open the
casket, take out the letters, destroy them at once, and send word to me
when it is done. Do not stop to think whether I am right, whether it is
the better plan, but do it at once, because I have said so."

"I will do it," he replied. Then she sa