Perfectly."

"She continued to make many dear friends, some of them among the
greatest personages of Europe. So that gradually she became what she is
to-day," Athenais Reneaux pronounced soberly: "as I think, the most
dangerous woman on the Continent."

"How--'dangerous'?"

"Covetous, grasping, utterly unscrupulous and corrupt, and weirdly
powerful. She has a strange influence in the highest places."

"Blackmail?"

"God knows! It was, at all events, strong enough to save her from being
shot during the war. I was assigned to watch her then. There was a
suspicion in England that she was in communication with the enemy. I
found it to be quite true. She knew Bolo Pasha intimately, Caillaux,
too. Other women, many of them, fled the country, or went to St. Lazare
for the duration of the war, or faced firing squads at dawn for doing
infinitely less than she did to betray France and her Allies; but Liane
Delorme got off scot-free. I happen to know that England made the
strongest representations to the French government about her. I know
personally of two young French officers who had been on friendly terms
with Liane, and who shot themselves, one dramatically on her very
doorstep. And why did they do that, if not in remorse for betraying to
her secrets which afterwards somehow found their way to the enemy?...
But nothing was ever done about it, she was never in the least
molested, and nightly you might see her at Maxim's or L'Abbaye, making
love to officers, while at the Front men were being slaughtered by the
hundreds, thanks to her treachery.... Ah, monsieur, I tell you I know
that woman too well!"

The girl's voice quavered with indignation.

"So that was how you came to know her," Lanyard commented as if he had
found nothing else of interest. "I wondered..."

"Yes: we were bosom friends--almost--for a time. It wasn't nice, but
the job had to be done. Then Liane grew suspicious, and our friendship
cooled. One night I had a narrow escape from some Apaches. I recognised
Liane's hand in that. She was afraid I knew something. So I did. But
she didn't dream how much I knew. If she had there would have been a
second attempt of that sort minus the escape. Then the armistice came
to cool our passions, and Liane found other things to think about ...
God knows what other mischief to do in time of peace!"

"I think," Lanyard suggested, recalling that conversation in the grand
salon of the Chateau de Montalais, "you had bette