ow when he most needed it? He had ridden boldly into the
lion's den. Such a proceeding requires a certain courage, but a higher
form of intrepidity is required to face the lion standing before the
exit.

De Chauxville looked at Steinmetz with shifty eyes. He was very like the
mask of the lynx in the smoking-room, even to the self-conscious,
deprecatory smile on the countenance of the forest sneak.

"Keep your temper," he said; "do not let us quarrel in the presence of a
lady."

"No; we will keep the quarrel till afterward."

Steinmetz turned to Etta.

"Princess," he said, "will you now, in my presence, forbid this man to
come to this or any other house of yours? Will you forbid him to address
himself either by speech or letter to you again?"

"You know I cannot do that," replied Etta.

"Why not?"

Etta made no answer.

"Because," replied De Chauxville for her, "the princess is too wise to
make an enemy of me. In that respect she is wiser than you. She knows
that I could send you and your prince to Siberia."

Steinmetz laughed.

"Nonsense!" he said. "Princess," he went on, "if you think that the fact
of De Chauxville numbering among his friends a few obscure police spies
gives him the right to persecute you, you are mistaken. Our friend is
very clever, but he can do no harm with the little that he knows of the
Charity League."

Etta remained silent. The silence made Steinmetz frown.

"Princess," he said gravely, "you were indignant just now because I made
so bold as to put the most natural construction upon the circumstances
in which I found you. It was a prearranged meeting between De Chauxville
and yourself. If the meeting was not the outcome of an intrigue such as
I mentioned, nor the result of this man's hold over you on account of
the Charity League, what was it? I beg of you to answer."

Etta made no reply. Instead, she raised her eyes and looked at De
Chauxville.

"Without going into affairs which do not concern you," said the
Frenchman, answering for her, "I think you will recognize that the
secret of the Charity League was quite sufficient excuse for me to
request a few minutes alone with the princess."

Of this Steinmetz took no notice. He was standing in front of Etta,
between De Chauxville and the door. His broad, deeply lined face was
flushed with the excitement of the moment. His great mournful eyes,
yellow and drawn with much reading and the hardships of a rigorous
climate, were fixed