ened. I waited patiently, looking about me
meantime. I discovered that the windows were barred with narrow slats
of iron within, although covered with heavy draperies of amber silk.
There was a double sheet of iron covering the door by which we had
entered.

"Your cage, Madam?" I inquired. "I do not blame England for making it so
secret and strong! If so lovely a prisoner were mine, I should double
the bars."

The swift answer to my presumption came in the flush of her cheek and
her bitten lip. She caught up the key from the table, and half motioned
me to the door. But now I smiled in turn, and pointed to the unopened
note on the table. "You will pardon me, Madam," I went on. "Surely it is
no disgrace to represent either England or America. They are not at war.
Why should we be?" We gazed steadily at each other.

The old servant had disappeared when at length her mistress chose to
pick up my unregarded document. Deliberately she broke the seal and
read. An instant later, her anger gone, she was laughing gaily.

"See," said she, bubbling over with her mirth; "I pick up a stranger,
who should say good-by at my curb; my apartments are forced; and this is
what this stranger asks: that I shall go with him, to-night, alone, and
otherwise unattended, to see a man, perhaps high in your government, but
a stranger to me, at his own rooms-alone! Oh, la! la! Surely these
Americans hold me high!"

"Assuredly we do, Madam," I answered. "Will it please you to go in your
own carriage, or shall I return with one for you?"

She put her hands behind her back, holding in them the opened message
from my chief. "I am tired. I am bored. Your impudence amuses me; and
your errand is not your fault. Come, sit down. You have been good to me.
Before you go, I shall have some refreshment brought for you."

I felt a sudden call upon my resources as I found myself in this
singular situation. Here, indeed, more easily reached than I had dared
hope, was the woman in the case. But only half of my errand, the easier
half, was done.

CHAPTER VI

THE BOUDOIR OF THE BARONESS

A woman's counsel brought us first to woe.--_Dryden_.

"Wait!" she said. "We shall have candles." She clapped her hands
sharply, and again there entered the silent old serving-woman, who,
obedient to a gesture, proceeded to light additional candles in the
prism stands and sconces. The apartment was now distinct in all its
details under this additional flood o