e. It is not a thing a man gets the
chance of doing often."

"No," agreed the Captain; but he thought to himself, "Deuce take it, he
talks as if he were doing me a favour!"

"My friend, you look sad; you don't seem--"

"Oh, yes, I do--yes, I am," interrupted the Captain, hastily assuming,
or trying to assume, a cheerful expression. "But--"

"I understand--I understand. You doubt yourself?"

"That's it," assented the Captain very truthfully.

"Your tact, your discretion, your knowledge of women?" (Dieppe had
never in his life doubted any of these things; but he let the
accusation pass.) "Don't be afraid. Emilia will like you. I know
that Emilia will like you. And you will like her. I know it."

"You think so?" No intonation could have expressed greater doubt.

"I am certain of it; and when two people like one another, all goes
easily."

"Well, not always," said the Captain, whose position made him less
optimistic.

The Count felt in his waistcoat-pocket. Dieppe sat looking down
towards the floor with a frown on his face. He raised his eyes to find
the Count holding out his hand towards him; in the open palm of it lay
a wedding-ring.

"Take it back to her," said the Count.

"Really had n't you better do that yourself?" expostulated the Captain,
who felt himself hard driven by fate.

"No," said the Count, firmly. "I leave it all to you. Put it on her
finger and say, 'This is the pledge of love--of love renewed--of
Andrea's undying love for you.'" He thrust the symbol of bliss into
Captain Dieppe's most reluctant hand. The Captain sat and looked at it
in a horrified fascination.

"You will do it for me?" urged the Count. "You can't refuse! Ah, my
friend, if my sorrow does n't move you, think of hers. She is alone
there in that wing of the house--even her cousin, who was with her, was
obliged to leave her three days ago. There she sits, thinking of her
faults, poor child, in solitude! Alas, it is only too likely in tears!
I can't bear to think of her in tears."

The Captain quite understood that feeling; he had seen her in them.

"You will help us? Your noble nature will force you to it!"

After a moment's hesitation, pardonable surely in weak humanity, Dieppe
put the Countess's wedding-ring in his pocket, rose to his feet, and
with a firm unfaltering face held out his hand to his friend and host.

"I can refuse you nothing," he said, in most genuine emotion. "I will
do what you