le Duc, whatever Madame Derblay may do, whatever reason she
may have for doing it, I consider everything she does as well done."

* * * * *

Claire saw two pistols lowered. With a shriek, she bounded forward and
clapped her hand on the muzzle of Bligny's pistol!

* * * * *

An hour had elapsed without her regaining consciousness. The ironmaster
was leaning over her. Suddenly her eyes opened, and she threw her arms
round his neck. An acute pain passed through her hand, and she
remembered everything--her despair, her anguish, and her sacrifice.

"One word?" she asked. "Tell me, do you love me?"

Philippe showed her a radiant face.

"Yes, I love you," he replied.

A cry escaped Claire. She clung frantically to Philippe; their eyes met,
and in inexpressible ecstasy they exchanged their first kiss of love.

* * * * *

OUIDA (LOUISE DE LA RAMEE)

Under Two Flags

There are few women writers who have created more stir by
their works than Louise de la Ramee, the lady who wrote under
the pen name of Ouida. Born of English and French parentage at
Bury St. Edmund, England, in 1840, she began to turn to
account her undoubted literary talents at the age of twenty,
when she contributed to the "New Monthly" and "Bentley's
Magazine." In the same year appeared her first long story,
"Granville de Vigne," which was afterwards renamed and
republished as "Held in Bondage." From that time an amazing
output of romances fell in rapid succession from her pen, the
most picturesque of them, perhaps, being "Under Two Flags"
(1867) and "Moths." With respect to the former, although on
occasions it exhibits a tendency towards inaccurate
observation, the story is told with rare dramatic force and
descriptive power. From 1874, Mlle. Ramee made her home in
Italy, where, at Lucca, in spite of her reputation as a
novelist, she died in straightened circumstances Jan. 25,
1908.

_I.--An Officer of the Guards_

A Guardsman at home is always luxuriously accommodated, and the Hon.
Bertie Cecil, second son of Viscount Royallieu, was never behind his
fellows in anything; besides, he was one of the crack officers of the
1st Life Guards, and ladies sent him pretty things enough to fill the
Palais Royal.

Then Hon. Bertie was known generally in the br