ng me to the stairs all the time, and I began slowly
to ascend them. He stood down in the white stone hall, watching me
anxiously.

"You won't be long, will you?" he said, as I reached the corner. "I want
to talk to you before dinner."

I answered him mechanically, and turning away, went along the corridor
to my room, and flung myself upon the bed. I had scarcely been there
five minutes when there was a knock at the door.

"Who is there?" I asked, sitting up and hastily drying my eyes.

A servant's voice answered, and I recognized Cecile, the Countess's own
maid.

"Her ladyship has sent you a cup of tea, miss, and hopes you will be
sure to change all your clothes. There is a letter for you, too, miss."

I bade the girl come in and put the tea down. When she had gone, I
stretched out my hand, and took up the letter with trembling fingers. It
was from my uncle, and the postmark was Rome.

CHAPTER XXVII

A LIFE IN THE BALANCE

I suppose it is absurd to talk about presentiments, and yet I knew what
was in that letter. As plainly as though I saw it written up in
characters of fire, I knew its contents and my doom. The climax of all
things was at hand. The time was approaching when I must keep my vow, or
confess myself foresworn--an unworthy daughter of the Marionis. It was a
bitter choice, for there was a life in either balance; the life of this
traitress of five-and-twenty years ago, or of an old man sick to the
heart with disappointment; deceived by a woman in his youth, and a woman
again in his old age.

I bathed my eyes and face, and, throwing off my wet things, wrapped
myself in a dressing robe. Then I poured out a cup of tea and drank it
over the fire. All the while that letter lay before me on the tray, face
upward, and my eyes kept straying unwillingly toward it. It had a sort
of fascination for me, and in the end it conquered. I had meant to give
myself a few hours' more freedom--to have put it away until bedtime, but
a sudden impulse came to me, and I yielded. I caught it up with firm
fingers and tore it open.

* * * * *

"PALEZZO CARLOTTI, ROME.

"MARGHARITA,--Beloved. Success! success! My search is over, my purpose
is accomplished. I have found Paschuli. Enclosed in this letter you will
find a smaller envelope. It contains the powder.

"Can you wonder that my hand is shaking, and that there is a mist before
my eyes! I am an old man, and great joy is hard to