ve rendered me a signal service."

"Your pardon, M. le Comte," retorted Clyffurde with equal coolness, "I
know of nothing which could possibly justify the charges which, not
later than last Sunday, you laid at my door."

"The charge which I laid at your door then, Mr. Clyffurde, has not been
lifted from its threshold yet. I charged you with deliberately
conspiring against my King and my country all the while that you were
eating bread and salt at my table. I charged you with striving to render
assistance to that Corsican usurper whom may the great God punish, and
you yourself practically owned to this before you left my house."

"This I did not, M. le Comte," broke in Clyffurde hotly. "As a man of
honour I give you my word, that except for my being in de Marmont's
company on the day that he posted up the Emperor's proclamation in
Grenoble, I had no hand in any political scheme."

"And you would have me believe you," exclaimed the Comte, with
ever-growing vehemence, "when you talk of that Corsican brigand as 'the
Emperor.' Those words, Sir, are an insult, and had you not saved my
daughter and me just now from violence I would--old as I am--strike you
in the face for them."

With an impatient sigh at the old man's hot-headed obstinacy, Clyffurde
turned with a look of appeal to Crystal, who up to now had taken no part
in the discussion: "Mademoiselle," he said gently, "will you not at
least do me justice? Cannot you see that I am clumsy at defending mine
own honour, seeing that I have never had to do it before?"

"I only see, Monsieur," she retorted coldly, "that you are making vain
and pitiable efforts to regain my father's regard--no doubt for purposes
of your own. But why should you trouble? You have nothing more to gain
from us. Your clever comedy of a highwayman on the road has succeeded
beyond your expectations. The Corsican who now sits in the armchair
lately vacated by an infirm monarch whom you and yours helped to
dethrone, will no doubt reward you for your pains. As for me I can only
echo my father's feelings: I would ten thousand times sooner have been
torn to pieces by a rough crowd of ignorant folk than owe my safety to
your interference."

She took her father's arm and made a movement to go: instinctively
Clyffurde tried to stop her: at her words he had flushed with anger to
the very roots of his hair. The injustice of her accusation maddened
him, but the bitter resentment in the tone of her voice, the