suddenly they both remembered it was only a week this night since
they had met. Only seven days in which fate had altered all their lives.

The Austrian Prince wondered to himself what had happened. He had not
been blind to the situation at Armenonville, and here they seemed like
polite hostess and guest, nothing more.

"They are English, and they are very well bred, and they are very good
actors," he thought. "But, mon Dieu! were I ce beau jeune homme!"

And so it had come to an end--the feast and the Tziganes playing, and
Theodora will always be haunted by that last wild Hungarian tune. Music,
which moved every fibre of her being at all times, to-night was a
torture of pain and longing. And he was so near, so near and yet so far,
and it seemed as if the music meant love and separation and passionate
regret, and the last air most passionate of all, and before the final
notes died away Hector bent over to her, and he whispered:

"I have got your letter, and I love you, and I will obey its every wish.
You must trust me unto death. Darling, good-night, but never good-bye!"

And she had not answered, but her breath had come quickly, and she had
looked once in his eyes and then away into the night.

And so they shook hands politely and parted. And next day Mr. and Mrs.
Josiah Brown crossed over to England.

XVI

It was pouring with rain the evening Lord Bracondale arrived from Paris
at the family mansion in St. James's Square. He had only wired at the
last moment to his mother, too late to change her plans; she was
unfortunately engaged to take Morella Winmarleigh to the opera, and was
dining early at that lady's house, so she could only see him for a few
moments in her dressing-room before she started.

"My darling, darling boy!" she exclaimed, as he opened the door and
peeped in. "Streatfield, bring that chair for his lordship, and--oh, you
can go for a few minutes."

Then she folded him in her arms, and almost sobbed with joy to see him
again.

"Well, mother," he said, when she had kissed him and murmured over him
as much as she wished. "Here I am, and what a sickening climate! And
where are you off to?"

"I am going to dine with Morella Winmarleigh," said Lady Bracondale,
"early, to go to the opera, and then I shall take her on to the
Brantingham's ball. Won't you join us at either place, Hector? I feel it
so dreadfully, having to rush off like this, your first evening,
darling."

She stood back