an easy-chair, and striking a match, lighted a
cigarette. "That, Celestine," he said in French, "is what in English we
call a self-evident proposition."

Celestine's foot began to tap the floor, "You needn't pretend you
expected I would follow you. You thought you could drop me, like an old
slipper."

Watts blew a whiff of tobacco from his mouth. "It was a remark of
Ricard's, I believe, 'that in woman, one should always expect the
unexpected.'"

"_Mon Dieu_!" shrieked Celestine. "If I--if I could kill you--you--"

She was interrupted by Peter's bringing a chair to her and saying in
French, "Will you not sit down, please?"

She turned in surprise, for she had been too wrought up to notice that
Peter was in the room. She stared at him and then sat down.

"That's right," said Watts. "Take it easy. No occasion to get excited."

"Ah!" screamed Celestine, springing to her feet, "your name shall be in
all the papers. You shall--"

Peter again interrupted. "Madame, will you allow me to say something?"
He spoke gently and deferentially.

Celestine looked at him again, saying rapidly: "Why should I listen to
you? What are you to me? I don't even know you. My mind's made up. I
tell you--" The woman was lashing herself into a fury, and Peter
interrupted her again:

"Pardon me. We are strangers. If I ask anything of you for myself, I
should expect a refusal. But I ask it for humanity, to which we all owe
help. Only hear what I have to say. I do not claim it as a right, but as
a favor."

Celestine sat down. "I listen," she said. She turned her chair from
Watts and faced Peter, as he stood at the study table.

Peter paused a moment, and then said: "After what I have seen, I feel
sure you wish only to revenge yourself on Mr. D'Alloi?"

"Yes."

"Now let me show you what you will do. For the last two days Mr. D'Alloi
has carried a pistol in his pocket, and if you disgrace him he will
probably shoot himself."

"Bon!"

"But where is your revenge? He will be beyond your reach, and you will
only have a human life upon your conscience ever after."

"I shall not grieve!"

"Nor is that all. In revenging yourself on him, you do one of the
cruelest acts possible. A wife, who trusts and believes in him, will
have her faith and love shattered. His daughter--a young girl, with all
her life before her--must ever after despise her father and blush at
her name. Do not punish the weak and innocent for the sin of the
guilty!" Pet