es, and I saw things there which
amazed me. They were no longer the eyes of a frightened child. I was
thrilled with the passion which seemed somehow or other to have been
born in their deep blue depths.

"Dear Austen," she said, "I think that I care quite enough. But
listen. How can I say, 'Yes,' to you? Always my uncle has been kind,
in his way. I know now that he is worried, harassed to death, afraid,
even, of what may happen hour by hour. I could not leave him. He would
think that I had lost faith, that I had gone over to his enemies."

"Felicia dear," I said, "I do not wish to be the enemy of any one who
is your friend. Indeed, your uncle and his doings mean so little to
me. If they are honest, I might be able to help him. If he is engaged
in transactions of which he is ashamed, then it is time that you were
taken away."

"I will never believe that," she declared.

"Felicia," I said, "I will tell you why I have broken my promise and
come to London. I believe I told you that I had a brother out in
Brazil?"

"Yes!" she answered,--"Dicky, you called him."

"He wrote, you know, and said that he had been staying with the
Deloras on their estate, and he begged that I should call upon your
uncle here. Now I have had a cable from him. Felicia, there is
something wrong. You shall read the cable for yourself."

I gave it to her. She read it word by word. Then she read it again,
aloud, very softly to herself, and finally gave it back to me.

"I do not understand," she whispered. "I do not know why my uncle has
not communicated with his brother."

"I am beginning to believe, Felicia," I said, "that I know more than
you. I tell you frankly I believe that your uncle has kept silence
because he is not honestly carrying out the business on which he was
sent to England. Tell me exactly, will you? When did he arrive from
America?"

She shook her head.

"Austen," she said, "you know there were some things which I promised
to keep silent about, and this is one."

"At any rate," I said, half to myself, "he could not have been in
Paris more than three weeks. I do not understand how in that three
weeks he could have obtained such a hold upon you that you should come
here and do his bidding blindly, although you must know that some of
the things he does are extraordinary and mysterious."

She was obviously distressed.

"There is something," she said, "of course, which I am not telling
you,--something which I promised to