alk about this any longer. How is Jeanne?"

"We are going," the Princess said quietly, "to have trouble with that
child."

"Why?" Forrest asked.

"She is developing a conscience," the Princess remarked. "Where she got
it from, Heaven knows. It wasn't from her father. I can answer for
that."

"Anything else?" Forrest asked.

"It is a curious thing," the Princess replied, "but ever since those
few days down at that tumbledown old place of Cecil de la Borne's, she
seems to have developed in a remarkable manner. I don't know how much
nonsense she talked with that fisherman of hers, but some of it, at any
rate, seems to have stuck. I am sure," she added, with a little sigh,
"that we are going to have trouble."

Forrest smiled grimly.

"So far as I'm concerned," he remarked, "the trouble has arrived. I've
a good mind to chuck it altogether."

The Princess looked up. Worn though her face was, she possessed one
feature, her eyes, which still entitled her to be called a beautiful
woman. She looked at Forrest steadily, and he felt himself growing
uncomfortable before the contempt of her steady regard.

"I wonder how it is," she said pensively, "that all men are more or
less cowards. You shield yourselves by speaking of an attack of nerves.
It is nothing more nor less than cowardice."

"I believe you are right," Forrest assented. "I'm not the man I was."

"You are not," the Princess agreed. "It is well for you that you have
had me to look after you, or you would have gone to pieces altogether.
You talk of giving up cards and retiring to the Continent. My dear man,
what do you propose to live on?"

He did not answer. He had bullied this woman for a good many years. Now
he felt that the tables were being turned upon him.

"What has become of the De la Borne money?" she asked. "I never thought
that you would get it, but he paid up every cent, didn't he?"

Forrest nodded.

"He did," he admitted, "or rather his brother did for him. I lost four
hundred at Goodwood, and there were some of my creditors I simply had
to give a little to, or they would have pulled me up altogether. You
talk about nerves, Ena, but, hang it all, it's enough to give anyone
the hum to lead the sort of life I've had to lead for the last few
years. I'm nothing more nor less than a common adventurer."

"Whatever you are," the Princess answered steadily, "you are too old to
change your life or the manner of it. One can start again afresh on the