t--a story which could be proved
to be false in half a minute."

"Why should you suppose me," I retorted, "to be so foolish as to bring
you such a story if it could not be proved to be true? I ask nothing
more or less than that you should inquire into the matter."

"I shall do nothing of the sort," she answered. "I know too much
already."

"I am sorry," I answered, "to be so seriously at issue with you on such
a theme, but I am compelled to insist upon my right."

"I shall have nothing to say on the matter," she answered, "until the
count returns. He will be the final judge of what is to be done; but
until he comes I shall do my duty, and it is no part of my duty to allow
my niece to listen to the persuasions of a man who has only too clearly
proved his powers in that way already."

"Only a few weeks ago," I said, desperately, "I had an interview with
the Baroness Bonnar, in which I warned her not to intrude upon your
society again."

"I know all about it!" cried Lady Rollinson, with an indignant movement
of her fan. "You tried to bully the poor thing into silence. You may
save yourself any further trouble, Captain Fyffe. My mind is made
up, and I shall do what I have decided to do. In my days," she added,
beginning to cry, which made the situation more intolerable than
ever--"in my days, when a gentleman was told by a lady that his presence
was unwelcome in her house he would never have intruded."

"My dear Lady Rollinson," I responded, controlling myself with a very
considerable effort, "you must listen to reason. You have been made the
dupe of a thoroughly heartless and unprincipled woman."

"That appears to be your method!" She flashed back at me. "You can say
what you please about my character, now that I know yours. Thank God I
am too well known to fear your rancorous tongue!"

The position was actually maddening, and I had never dreamed until then
that even a woman who was bent on revenging what she conceived to be a
gross injury to one of her own sex could be so utterly unreasonable and
deaf to argument.

"I repeat, madame," I declared, "that the Count Ruffiano has been
betrayed to the enemy by this woman whose lies you accept as if they
were gospel. Brunow confessed to me barely six-and-thirty hours ago that
he acted as her agent in that villainous transaction. Is that a woman
whose bare word is to be taken against the overwhelming proof an honest
man can bring?"

I know I was excited, and it is v