s
narration, and it was plain from his looks that he was not proud of his
adventure and did not want it talked about. "Why do you frighten my wife
to death?" he said. "It is a mere trifle. Let me remain for a whole
night in cold wet wraps, and to-morrow I shall be all right. And now,
enough of the stupid business. And will you please, Henrietta, look
after my guests while I lie here in swaddling bands? All I want is a
couple of days of rest and then I shall be on my legs again."

Towards midnight Henrietta disappeared from among her guests and went to
enquire after Leonard; but she found his chamber door locked, and
received no answer to her gentle enquiries, from which she gathered that
Leonard was still dozing. She did not want to disturb him, and as her
husband's guests, judging by the noise they made, had evidently begun to
amuse themselves in real earnest after her departure, she did not return
to them, but hastened to her own chamber.

How amazed was she to find Anicza there closeted with Clementina!

The Roumanian girl had been awaiting Henrietta for some time, and
Clementina thought it quite natural to conduct her into her mistress's
sleeping-room, imagining that there was some monetary transaction
between them, of which the baron and the domestics need know nothing. In
order that she might not be bored by waiting, Clementina entertained her
for a whole hour with a hair-raising account of the hunting accident,
with which the whole castle was full. Anicza let the other talk on
without so much as a hint that she had a still more hair-raising and
terrific tale to tell of the night just past than ever Miss Clementina
had.

As soon as Henrietta perceived Anicza, she politely requested Clementina
to be so good as to leave them to themselves, a request which Clementina
very naturally regarded as incomprehensible; and, of course, the instant
she had crossed the threshold, she diligently took up her position
before the keyhole. She was, however, furious to discover that
Henrietta proceeded, more prudently than speakers on the stage who
regularly allow themselves to be overheard by eaves-droppers, for she
drew together the heavy damask curtains of the alcove and retired behind
them with Anicza, so that neither prying eyes nor listening ears could
find anything there to satisfy their inquisitiveness.

"It almost succeeded!" said the Roumanian girl impatiently, beginning
her story at the end instead of at the beginning