ot an easy one, and all the
while Arthur, who maintained an uneasy silence, was watching me
furtively. It was as though he knew from the first what it was that I
was leading up to, and I seemed to be conscious already of his
passionate though unspoken resistance.

"It was a child," I said at last, "whom we took into our lives. To-day
she is a woman!"

Then Arthur could keep silence no longer. There was a pink flush in his
cheeks, which were still as smooth as a girl's, but the passion in his
tone was the passion of a man.

"You are not thinking, Arnold--you would not be so mad as to think of
giving her up to any of these people?" he exclaimed. "They are her
enemies, all of them. I am sure of it!"

"I am coming to that presently," I went on. "You know what happened this
afternoon? You saw the likeness, the amazing likeness, between Isobel
and that other girl, the daughter of the Archduchess. The Archduchess
was herself very much impressed with it. Without a doubt she knows
Isobel's history. She went so far as to tell me that she believed Isobel
to be morganatically connected with her own family, the House of
Waldenburg! She offered to take her under her own protection!"

"You did not consent!" Arthur exclaimed.

"I neither consented nor absolutely refused," I answered. "It was not a
matter to be decided on the spur of the moment. But the more I think of
it, the more I am puzzled. Madame Richard wants Isobel. She was not
satisfied with our refusal to give her up. She sent that messenger of
hers back with fresh offers, and when again we refused, the woman takes
up her quarters here, always spying upon us, always accosting Isobel on
any excuse. Madame Richard may be a very good woman, but I have seen and
spoken with her, and I do not for one moment believe that her
extraordinary persistence is for Isobel's sake alone. Then Lady Delahaye
has never ceased from worrying us. She has tried threats, persuasions
and entreaties. She has tried by every means in her power to induce us
to give up the child to her. And now we have the Archduchess to deal
with, and it seems to me that we are getting very near the heart of the
matter. The Archduchess is a daughter of one of the Royal Houses of
Europe, and Major Delahaye was once _attache_ at her father's Court.
Then there is Grooten, the man who shot Delahaye. His interest in her is
so strong that he risks his life and commits a crime to save her from a
man whom he believes to be