upid under his fine exterior; the worst
type of Briton, without the saving grace of a Briton's honor. And so she
had wearied him, who saw in her no more than a sweet loveliness that had
cloyed him presently. And when the chance was offered him by Bentinck
and his father, he took it and went his ways, and this sweet flower
that he had plucked from its Normandy garden to adorn him for a brief
summer's day was left to wilt, discarded.

The tale that greeted Everard on his return from Ireland was that,
broken-hearted, she had died--crushed neath her load of shame. For it
was said that there had been no marriage.

The rumor of her death had gone abroad, and it had been carried to
England and my Lord Rotherby by a cousin of hers--the last living
Maligny--who crossed the channel to demand of that stolid gentleman
satisfaction for the dishonor put upon his house. All the satisfaction
the poor fellow got was a foot or so of steel through the lungs, of
which he died; and there, may it have seemed to Rotherby, the matter
ended.

But Everard remained--Everard, who had loved her with a great and almost
sacred love; Everard, who swore black ruin for my Lord Rotherby--the
rumor of which may also have been carried to his lordship and stimulated
his activities in having Everard hunted down after the Braemar fiasco of
1715.

But before that came to pass Everard had discovered that the rumor
of her death was false--put about, no doubt, out of fear of that same
cousin who had made himself champion and avenger of her honor. Everard
sought her out, and found her perishing of want in an attic in the
Cour des Miracles some four months later--eight months after Rotherby's
desertion.

In that sordid, wind-swept chamber of Paris' most abandoned haunt, a son
had been born to Antoinette de Maligny two days before Everard had come
upon her. Both were dying; both had assuredly died within the week but
that he came so timely to her aid. And that aid he rendered like the
noble-hearted gentleman he was. He had contrived to save his fortune
from the wreck of James' kingship, and this was safely invested in
France, in Holland and elsewhere abroad. With a portion of it he
repurchased the chateau and estates of Maligny, which on the death of
Antoinette's father had been seized upon by creditors.

Thither he sent her and her child--Rotherby's child--making that noble
domain a christening-gift to the boy, for whom he had stood sponsor at
the font. And