mbert was the wife of the ex-Ambassador to the Court of Rhaetia
from Great Britain.

The Princess finished in silence.

"Isn't it hideous?" asked the Grand Duchess. "To think that you and I
should have deliberately placed ourselves in such a position! We are
to run away, like detected adventuresses, unless--unless you are now
ready to tell the Emperor all."

"No," said Virginia, hopelessly.

"What! Not yet? Oh, my dear, then you must bring matters to
a crisis--instantly--to-night even. It's evident that some
enemy--perhaps some jealous person--has been at work behind our
backs. It is for you to turn the tables upon him, and there isn't
an hour to waste. From the first, you meant to make some dramatic
revelation. Now, the time has come."

"Ah, I meant--I meant!" echoed Virginia, with a sob breaking the ice
in her voice. "Nothing has turned out as I meant. You were right,
dear; I was wrong. We ought never to have come to Rhaetia."

The Grand Duchess grew paler than before. She had been vaguely
distressed. Now, she was sharply alarmed. If Virginia admitted that
this great adventure should never have been undertaken, then indeed
the earth must be quaking under their feet.

"Ought not--to have come?" she repeated, piteously. "What dreadful
thing has happened?"

The Princess stood with bent head. "It's hard to tell," she said,
"harder, almost, than anything I ever had to do. But it must be done.
Everything's at an end, dear."

"What--you've told him, and he has refused to forgive?"

"He knows nothing."

"For Heaven's sake, don't keep me in suspense."

Virginia's lips were dry. "He asked me to be his wife," she said. "Oh,
wait--wait! Don't look happy. You don't understand, and I didn't, at
first. He had to explain and--he put the thing as little offensively
as he could. Oh, Mother, he thinks me only good enough to be his
morganatic wife!"

The storm had burst at last, and the Princess fell on her knees by the
sofa where, burying her face in her mother's lap, she sobbed as if
parting with her youth.

There had always been mental and temperamental barriers between the
Dresden china lady and her daughter; but they loved each other, and
never had the girl been so dear to her mother as now. The Grand
Duchess thought of the summer day when Virginia had knelt beside her,
saying, "We are going to have an adventure, you and I."

Alas, the adventure was over, and summer and hope were dead. Tears
trembled in the moth