y rate an equal
interest with you in what is to be to-morrow."

Jack laughed.

"Perhaps if you knew your lady as well as I do--" he began, and then he
stopped.

They went out to the staircase, and Von Ibn descended several steps in
advance. Jack contemplated his back, and his lips twitched with the
conquering of a rebellious smile.

"So there walks the end of all," he said to himself. "Who would have
thought it of Rosina! Poor girl, she is about over; in fact, I'm afraid
that, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, 'Rosina' has already
ceased to exist--knocked under for good, so to speak. Only to think of
that particular girl choosing a thorough-bred European husband with a
Tartar syllable in his name!" He paused and chuckled. "I've proved my
truth to Carter, anyhow. I told him that there was but one man in
America clever enough to marry my cousin, and now he'll perceive that
that man's brains so far surpass the brains of all others, that,
although capable of marrying her, he took precious good care to marry
her to another fellow. Well, if they're happy they owe it all to me; and
if they're miserable, they have no one but themselves to blame."

Von Ibn had paused at the foot of the stairs and now looked up, smiling,
into his friend's eyes.

"I am this day so greatly rejoiced," he said earnestly, "what life is to
have for me, and for her, after this! You may not divine it, I think."

Jack looked into the warm and shining light of his uplifted face.

"I hope you'll both be just everlastingly happy," he said sincerely.

"But that is certain," the lover said, in a tone of deep feeling. "Did
you look at her to-day? It is heaven she brings me with her. We were two
in the great world, and Lucerne brought us to one. Then love did all the
rest."

"Oh, I say," Jack remonstrated; "I certainly worked some too!"

Chapter Seventeen

When Rosina opened her door it was Molly who stood there; a gorgeous
Molly, put forth by all that was uppermost in the Karntnerstrasse of
that year.

"Why, where ever did you come from?" she cried.

"From Vienna," said Molly; "from Vienna by way of Botzen and Venice."

"And Madame la Princesse?"

"I've left her and qualified as a chaperone on my own hook."

"You're with Madame--Madame--" Rosina looked down at the
_carte-de-visite_ which she held in her fingers still.

"I'm not with her; I'm _her_!"

"You're--"

"Madame La Francesca."

"Molly, you're not--"

"Yes, I