w what you mean. I have no secret!"

The black feathers fluttered backwards and forwards once more. She
regarded me still with the same quiet smile.

"You love my niece, Mr. Greatson," she said.

"Madame," I answered, "you are jesting!"

"Indeed I am not," she declared. "I have made a statement which is
perfectly true."

"I deny it!" I exclaimed hoarsely.

"You can deny it as much as you like, if you think it worth while to
perjure yourself," she replied coolly. "The truth remains. I have had a
good deal of experience in such matters. You love Isobel, and I am not
at all sure that Isobel does not love you."

"Madame," I protested, "such statements are absurd. I am no longer a
young man. I am thirty-four years old. I have no longer any thought of
marriage. Isobel is no more than a child. I was nearly her present age
when she was born. The whole idea, as I trust you will see, is
ridiculous."

The Archduchess regarded me still with unchanged face.

"Your protestations, Mr. Greatson," she said, "amuse, but utterly fail
to convince me."

"Let us drop the subject, then," I said hastily. "At least, if you
persist in your hallucination, I hope you will believe this. I have
never spoken a word of what could be called love-making to the child in
my life."

"I believe you implicitly," she answered promptly. "I believe that I
know and can appreciate your position. Let me tell you that I honour you
for it."

"Madame," I murmured, "you are very good. Let us now abandon the
subject."

"By no means," she answered. "On the contrary, I should like to discuss
it with you fully."

"Madame!" I exclaimed.

"Let us suppose for a moment," she went on calmly, "that I am correct,
that you really love Isobel, but that your peculiar position has imposed
upon your sense of honour the necessity for silence. Well, your
guardianship of her may now be considered to have ended. From to-night
it has passed into my hands. Still, you would say the difference between
your positions is immeasurable. You are, I doubt not, a gentleman by
birth, but Isobel comes from one of the ancient and noble families of
the world, and might almost expect to share a throne with the man whom
she elects to marry. It is true, in effect, Mr. Greatson, that you are
of different worlds."

"Madame," I answered, "why do you trouble to demonstrate such obvious
facts? They are incontestable. But supposing for a moment that your
surmises concerning myself were tr