agreeable vintage of Port on the table. A
morning whet, Samoval?" O'Moy invited him, taking up the decanter.

"Two fingers, then--no more. It is not my custom in the morning. But
here--to drink your lady's health, and yours, Miss Armytage." With
a graceful flourish of his glass he pledged them both and sipped
delicately, then took the chair that O'Moy was proffering.

"Good news, I hear, General. Antonio de Souza's removal from the
Government is already bearing fruit. The mills in the valley of the
Mondego are being effectively destroyed at last."

"Ye're very well informed," grunted O'Moy, who himself had but received
the news. "As well informed, indeed, as I am myself." There was a note
almost of suspicion in the words, and he was vexed that matters which
it was desirable be kept screened as much as possible from general
knowledge should so soon be put abroad.

"Naturally, and with reason," was the answer, delivered with a rueful
smile. "Am I not interested? Is not some of my property in question?"
Samoval sighed. "But I bow to the necessities of war. At least it cannot
be said of me, as was said of those whose interests Souza represented,
that I put private considerations above public duty--that is the phrase,
I think. The individual must suffer that the nation may triumph. A Roman
maxim, my dear General."

"And a British one," said O'Moy, to whom Britain was a second Rome.

"Oh, admitted," replied the amiable Samoval. "You proved it by your
uncompromising firmness in the affair of Tavora."

"What was that?" inquired Miss Armytage.

"Have you not heard?" cried Samoval in astonishment.

"Of course not," snapped O'Moy, who had broken into a cold perspiration.
"Hardly a subject for the ladies, Count."

Rebuked for his intention, Samoval submitted instantly.

"Perhaps not; perhaps not," he agreed, as if dismissing it, whereupon
O'Moy recovered from his momentary breathlessness. "But in your own
interests, my dear General, I trust there will be no weakening when this
Lieutenant Butler is caught, and--"

"Who?"

Sharp and stridently came that single word from her ladyship.

Desperately O'Moy sought to defend the breach.

"Nothing to do with Dick, my dear. A fellow named Philip Butler, who--"

But the too-well-informed Samoval corrected him. "Not Philip,
General--Richard Butler. I had the name but yesterday from Forjas."

In the scared hush that followed the Count perceived that he had
stumbled headlong