in the street without
being recognized, and once got near enough to slip into Monica's hand a
note I had hastily scribbled on the leaf of a note-book.

"Are you willing that I should try my luck again with your mother?" I had
written. "If not, will you consent to a runaway marriage with a man who
loves you better than his life?"

Next day came an answer through Mademoiselle de la Mole.

Monica begged that I would not speak to her mother. "She fancies that you
have gone away," the girl wrote. "If you came forward I think she would
wire the Duke of Carmona, for she writes to him nearly every day as it is;
and she would do everything she could to make me marry him at once. Don't
hate me for being a coward. I'm not, except with mother. I can't help it
with her. She's different from everyone else. I heard the Duchess saying
to her yesterday, that if I were to marry a grandee of Spain, I would be
made a lady-in-waiting to the Queen instead of maid of honour; so I know
what they're thinking of always. But while mother hopes you have given me
up, and that I'm quite good, they will perhaps let me alone.

"I wish I dared write to the Princess about you; only, you see, on account
of your father and that horrid accident which happened, in Barcelona, she
might misunderstand you, and things would be worse than before. But if I
find that mother means actually to try and force me, then I _will_ go away
with you. Otherwise, I would rather wait, for both our sakes.

"When I go back to England, there are some dear cousins of mine who might
help us, but it's no use writing. I would have to see and talk to them
myself. Anyway, if I were there they'd manage not to let me be married to
a foreigner I hate; and you and I could go on being true to each other for
a little while, until everything could be arranged.

"The worst is, mother doesn't mean to go back to England yet. That's what
I'm afraid of, and that she has some plan about which she doesn't mean to
talk till the last minute. But she hasn't said anything lately about
visiting the Duchess of Carmona in Spain, and I hope she's giving it up.
As soon as I hear anything definite I'll somehow let you know. I think I
can promise that, though it may be difficult, as mother will never let
Angele and me be alone together for a minute if she can help it. The day
after the ball we are having a talk in my room when my mother came, and
perhaps guessed I had been telling Angele things. Since then