having agreed before the
ceremony that this should be so--and that she wanted to engage a good
maid and go over to Paris as soon as possible, to see her friend the
Princess Torniloni.

She had decided in the train that her methods with all who opposed her
must be as they used to be with Sister Jeanne--a statement of her
intentions, and then silence and no explanations. Sister Jeanne had
given up all argument with her in her last year at the convent!

Mr. Parsons soon found that his words were falling upon deaf ears, and
were perfectly useless. She had cut herself adrift from her aunt and
uncle, whom she cordially disliked, leaving them a letter to tell them
that as she was now her own mistress, she never meant to trouble them or
Mr. Greenbank again, and she bid them adieu!

"It is not as if they had ever been the least kind to me," she did
condescend to inform the lawyer. "They couldn't bear me really--Samuel,
although he was such a poor creature, was far the best of them. Uncle
was only wanting my money for him, and Aunt Jemima detested me, and only
had me with her because Papa left in his will that she had to, or lose
his legacy. You can't think what I've learned of their meannesses in the
month I've know them!"

Thus Mr. Parsons had no further arguments to use--and felt that after
seeing her safe to his own hotel that night, and helping to engage a
suitable and responsible maid next day to travel with her, he could do
no more.

The question of the name troubled him most, and he almost refused to
agree that she should be known as Mrs. Howard.

"But I have told Mr. Arranstoun that I mean to be only that!" Sabine
exclaimed, "and he didn't mind, and"--here her violet eyes flashed--"I
_will not_ be anything else--so there!"

Mr. Parsons shrugged his shoulders; she was impossible to deal with, and
as he himself was obliged to return to America in the following week, he
felt the only thing to do was to let her have her way. And so well did
he guard his client's secret then and afterwards, that even Simone,
though a shrewd Frenchwoman, had never known that her mistress' name was
not really Howard. At the time of her being engaged she was just leaving
an American lady from the far West whom Mr. Parsons knew of, and she was
delighted to come as maid and almost chaperon to this sweet, but wilful
young lady.

So they had gone to Paris together, to order clothes--such a joyous
task--and to make herself forget those hour