In Direst Peril

unow to me with an aspect of some considerable amazement. Hinge was gaping in the passage, and it was evident that he was more interested in the proceedin

behind him, and still looking from Brunow to myself and back again w

seemed to tell me at once, that Brunow had but recently left

, sir," said Brunow, "what I told

Captain Fyffe what I emphatically denied to yo

height, he threw his head back, and his

ence-the most sacred confidence one man can repose in another-a confiden

s. There, if you cede so much to the authority of my years, the matter may be allowed to rest. If

with Captain Fyffe," said

he count, and without a word or a glance for me walked out of the room, slam

ioned person. I owe it to you to explain precisely what has happened. But fir

and held it a moment, har

d by Lady Rollinson to say that she will be charmed to meet you at her table. There, my dear fell

the fingers of his right hand with his lef

myself, and I felt as foolis

ulders and pressing me gently towards an arm-chair, "I wil

cried, recovering my wits a little; "I have othe

very sweet yet mournful smile, "I

asked, "that Miss Rossano a

t, nodding with his affect

s my circ

ely," he replied, "but I think she has

e of three hundr

ad first known it that it affected me strongly, "My dear Fyffe," he said, reaching his friendly hand out towards me once more, "why should we talk about money? If you can

e had won and I had been rejected-I was willing to forgive him anything. I hoped that in course of time he would come to see how baseless his suspicions wer

to accompany me to L

dare say they will excuse an afternoon vis

man that all the miseries he had undergone had left so much of his manhood to him! What a tranquil and heroic soul he must have borne to have survived that hideous time at all. I kn

owledge that he welcomed me so warmly was like honey to my heart. For all this I was in an absurd flutter all the way; and when we reached the house I had come to such a condition of mind that whether I were in a delirium of joy

icately on the mantel-piece, and my mind fastened on to the sound as if there were possibility of checking and steadying my whirling thoughts by thinking of it-pretty much as a man would clutch a straw in a whirlpool. The rustle of a dress sounded in the corridor outside, and a step paused at the door. My heart beat furiously, and then as the do

I had never breathed a word to her, and here we were plighted to each other in this strange and sudden fashion, with no preliminaries of cou

make a man feel so clumsy and coarse in the presence of the woman he loves are the things that take a woman's fancy, just as her sweetness and delicacy are the things that take his. I never was a bit of a handsome fellow, but I was a big man, flowing over with health and vigor, with a big voice and a broad chest and shoulders, and, until I fell in love, I never set a great deal of value on good looks in a man. But there was I, a great hulking fellow who had passed all the best part of his life in the giving and receiving of hard knocks, a fellow who could not for the life of him help feeling that he carried the flavor of the camp about with him. What was there, in the name of

pretend that the count and Italy occupied all our minds, but they had their full share of our thoughts, and we both knew that there was no question of marriage just at present. With the history of

nces, to dispense with evening-dress, and so there would have been no necessity for my going home again before dinner. The count, however, ha

arranged a fur rug about her knees. I stood stock-still, and was rather roughly hustled before I so much as remembered where I was. When I looked round Brunow had disappeared. He had probably seen me, and having found time to cool, had wisely decided against a renewal in the public street of our quarrel of that afternoon. I walked on like a man in a dream, for Constance Pleyel was the last woman in the world I had thought to see, and the very last woman to be found in the society of Brunow and the Baroness Bonnar. So far as I knew, Brunow had certainly little enough to do with her, and their meeting might have been one of the purest chance; but that she was associated in some way with the baroness was evident enough from her presence in that lady's carriage. It is a bitter thing to have to go back on the past in this way, but I cannot tell my story without it. If there are worthless women in the world, there are some who are very nearly angels, and I feel as if I were almost dishonoring the sex in telling the truth about poor Constance, for I had been very honestly in love with her when I was a lad, and it seems even now, after the lapse of all these years, as if I were defiling the place which had once been a sanctuary. But when I had recovered from the shock of my surprise and began to understand what I had seen, it crossed me in a very vivid fashion that the mistrusting dislike with which I had always regarded the ba

myself, but they were both Italians, and had no notion of the English custom of sitting over their wine after dinner. The count was a total abstainer, for his long-enforced abstention had taught him a curious delicacy of palate, so that all wines were actually distasteful to him. When the ladies had retired we smoked a cigarette, drank a cup of black coffee, and made our way to the drawing-room, where Lady Rollinson had promised us something unusual in the way of music. It was my right to have monopolized Violet's society, or if not actually to have monopolized it, to have taken a full share of it. I found opportunity to whisper to her that I had an especial reason for speaking to the baroness, and while the music was going on I plante

e said at last, and with a humorously disdainfu

ing the fan in my hand. "I have

ious tonight," she answered, "and this

said, "and the place

eyes at me wit

lance and turned away, holding up her hand as if to ask me to listen to the last strains of the music which her own vehement chatter had already spoiled for everybody who cared to listen to it. She had evidently a purpose in holding me off, and I of course could form a reasonable guess as to what the nature of that purpose

ing to her with a pretence of animation which I know was intended to prevent me from giving her a reminder of what had alrea

then, at twe

ed in speaking to her and had offered her an insult. But she change

w, then,

d both dislike and fear, and held at the same time a keener and more piercing observation

awing-room together she asked no questions. She has told me since that she wondered a little what appointment I could have with the Baroness Bonnar, but she gave me

with funds than at any other period of her curiously vagabond existence. She was to me at this time the Baroness Bonnar pure and simple, a foreign lady of wealth and position who moved in good society, had agreeable and influential friends, and obvious command of money

" she began. "Will you do me the honor to le

, with her lips tight set and her eyes glittering a little dangerously,

etorted, "by telling me the

ute that I saw at once she had

have, as a matter of fact, no reason for asking the lady's name for my o

ery quietly. "The

ponded. "Let me ask you if you hav

and sniffing at its contents now and then, "you have a manner which is abominably resolute. Yo

s of no such manner. Will you oblige me by t

gh to come here and to question me about that lady after what I heard last night-" she paused there

," I repeated, unable to attach

is, "after what I heard last night you are sufficiently audacious to come here and ask me questions about Constance Pleyel, I can tell yo

nsible?"

ny it?" sh

t unconsciously, and

" I answered. "The sug

appeared in answer to the sound, and the baroness, without turning her head towards him

oted in as