do for my
Sim?"

"Well, it's all by, anyway," said he shortly.

"What, with her?" said Mrs. Petullo, but with no note of hope.

"No, with you," said he brutally. "Let us be friends, good friends,
Kate," he went on, fearing this should too seriously arouse her. "I'll
be the best friend you have in the world, my dear, if you'll let me,
only--"

"Only you will never kiss me again," said she with a sob. "There can be
no friendship after you, Sim, and you know it. You are but lying again.
Oh, God! oh, God! I wish I were dead! You have done your worst, Simon
MacTaggart; and if all tales be true--"

"I'm not saying a word of what I might say in my own defence," he
protested.

"What _could_ you say in your own defence? There is not the ghost of an
excuse for you. What _could_ you say?"

"Oh, I could be pushed to an obvious enough retort," he said, losing
patience, for now it was plain that they were outraging every etiquette
by so long talking together while others were in the room. "I was to
blame, Heaven knows! I'm not denying that, but you--but you--" And his
fingers nervously sought in his coat for the flageolet.

Mrs. Petullo's face flamed. "Oh, you hound!" she hissed, "you hound!"
and then she laughed softly, hysterically. "That is the gentleman
for you! The seed of kings, no less! What a brag it was! That is the
gentleman for you!--to put the blame on me. No, Sim; no, Sim; I will not
betray you to Miss Mim-mou', you need not be feared of that; I'll let
her find you out for herself and then it will be too late. And, oh! I
hate her! hate her! hate her!"

"Thank God for that!" said the Chamberlain with a sudden memory of the
purity she envied, and at these words Mrs. Petullo fell in a swoon upon
the floor.

"Lord, what's the matter?" cried her husband, running to her side, then
crying for the maid.

"I haven't the slightest idea," said Sim MacTag-gart. "But she looked
ill from the first," and once more he inwardly cursed his fate that
constantly embroiled him in such affairs.

Ten minutes later he and the Count were told the lady had come round,
and with expressions of deep sympathy they left Petullo's dwelling.

CHAPTER XXIII -- A MAN OF NOBLE SENTIMENT

There was a silence between the two for a little after they came out
from Petullo's distracted household. With a chilling sentiment towards
his new acquaintance, whom he judged the cause of the unhappy woman's
state, Count Victor waited for the exc