ht and torn almost to pieces. Only the father
of our friend, the present Prince of Seyre, escaped."

"Why do you tell me all this?" Louise asked, shivering. "It is such a
chapter of horrors!"

"It illustrates a point," Graillot replied. "Among the whole aristocracy
of France there was no family so loathed and detested as the _seigneurs_
of Seyre. Those at the _chateau_, and others who were arrested in Paris,
met their death with singular contempt and calm. Eugene of Seyre, whose
character in my small way I have studied, is of the same breed."

Louise took up a fan which lay on the table by her side, and waved it
carelessly in front of her face.

"One does so love," she murmured, "to hear one's friends discussed in
this friendly spirit!"

"It is because Eugene of Seyre is a friend of yours that I am talking to
you in this fashion," Graillot continued. "You have also another
friend--this young man from Cumberland."

"Well?"

"In him," Graillot went on, "one perceives all the primitive qualities
which go to the making of splendid manhood. Physically he is almost
perfect, for which alone we owe him a debt of gratitude. He has, if I
judge him rightly, all the qualities possessed by men who have been
brought up free from the taint of cities, from the smear of our spurious
over-civilization. He is chivalrous and unsuspicious. He is also,
unfortunately for him, the enemy of the prince."

Louise laid down her fan. She no longer tried to conceal her agitation.

"Why are you so melodramatic?" she demanded. "They have scarcely spoken.
This is, I think, their third meeting."

"When two friends," Graillot declared, "desire the same woman, then all
of friendship that there may have been between them is buried. When two
others, who are so far from being friends that they possess opposite
qualities, opposite characters, opposite characteristics, also desire
the same woman--"

"Don't!" Louise interrupted, with a sudden little scream. "Don't! You
are talking wildly. You must not say such things!"

Graillot leaned forward. He shook his head very slowly; his heavy hand
rested upon her shoulder.

"Ah, no, dear lady," he insisted, "I am not talking wildly. I am
Graillot, who for thirty years have written dramas on one subject and
one subject only--men and women. It has been given to me to study many
varying types of the human race, to watch the outcome of many strange
situations. I have watched the prince draw you nearer and n