ng her husband and telling her how he was looked
up to by all his comrades and esteemed by his officers; and yet he could
not secure his promotion. Even the commandant at Verona had interceded
for him in vain. He must have a powerful enemy who pursued him with
relentless persistence.

Blanka well knew who that enemy was, but she took no steps--for she felt
that they would have been useless--to try to soften him. Her family were
united in opposing any suggestion on her part of undertaking a journey.
She did not even venture to visit her husband in Verona. An instinct, a
foreboding, and also certain timely warnings, kept her safe at home.

This long period of trial and suspense was not without its chastening
effect on the young wife's character. It developed her as only stern
experience can. On her shoulders alone rested the cares which her
husband had formerly shared with her. The iron works were now under her
sole management. Foresight, vigilance, and technical knowledge were
called for, and nobly did she meet the demand.

Those five years brought her many a difficult problem to solve and many
an anxious hour. Once a hail-storm destroyed all her crops two days
before the harvest, and she was forced to buy grain from her own purse.
Again it happened that the crop of iron itself was ruined by something
far worse than hail. Some one at Vienna dealt a mortal blow to all the
iron mines in the land with a single drop of ink. He lowered the tariff,
and native iron production thenceforth could go on only at a loss. But
Blanka was determined not to close her mines and her foundries. She
recognised the hand that had dealt her this severe blow, but she knew
the harsh decree would have to be repealed before long, such an outcry
was sure to go up against it. So she pawned her jewels, kept all her men
at work,--they seconded her efforts nobly by volunteering to take less
than full pay,--and wrote nothing at all about her troubles to
Manasseh.

CHAPTER XXV.

SECRETS OF THE COMMISSARIAT.

The mysterious workings of the commissary department are beyond the
understanding of ordinary mortals. Therefore let it suffice us to take
only a passing glance at those mysteries.

Benjamin Vajdar was enjoying a tete-a-tete with the Marchioness
Caldariva after the theatre.

"Well, what has my cripple to report of his day's doings?" asked Rozina.
"Is all going well in Italy?"

"We signed a contract to-day for supplying our army ther