like this when I have done so much for him."

Natalie drew back, startled and amazed.

"I assure you that you need have no fear so far as I am concerned.
Both my brother and myself have refused to comply with that
condition, and we shall refuse to the end."

Madame, however, paid but little heed to Natalie; she was beside
herself with rage.

"Ah, ah!" she cried, "wait till he returns! I'll kill him! I'll kill
him!"

So distorted with fury was the woman's face that Natalie became
alarmed for her sanity. She drew near to her and endeavoured to catch
her hands in her own, imploring her to be calm.

By-and-by Madame Estelle listened to her, and in a sudden revulsion of
feeling fell on her knees, sobbing bitterly.

Natalie bent over her, doing her best to console her, and presently,
as the woman grew calmer, she endeavoured to turn the situation to her
own advantage.

"The best way to defeat his scheme," she urged, "is to release me."

But at that Madame Estelle leaped to her feet.

"Ah! not that," she cried, "not that! If I distrust him, I distrust
you still more. Your pretty face may look sad and sorrowful, and you
may declare to me that you will never consent, but I will wait and
see. I'll wait until Boris returns and confront you with him. Then
perhaps I shall learn the real truth."

Natalie made a little despairing gesture with her hands; argument, she
saw, would be useless.

Gathering herself together, Madame blundered, half blind with tears,
out of the room, and Natalie with a sinking heart heard the bolts
drawn again.

All through the day Estelle sat brooding, sending Natalie's lunch and
tea up to her by Michael.

All the evening she still sat and brooded, until she had worked
herself up into a hysteria of rage.

It was long after dark when a knock sounded on her door. It was Boris.

"Ah!" she cried, as he entered, "what do you think I have gone
through? What do you think I have suffered? What do you think I have
found out?"

Boris looked at her in alarm.

"Is it Mademoiselle?" he asked. "Is she safe?"

"Safe! Oh, yes, she is safe," she cried, with a peal of uncanny
laughter. "Safe for your kisses and for your caresses. Oh, you liar!
you liar! I have been true to you in all respects, and you have been
false to me in everything that mattered. So you will marry the pretty
Natalie, will you? Oh, but you won't! Never! Never!"

She rushed at Boris, as though to strike him, but Boris, jaded thoug