ntrusted fifty or sixty thousand dollars, his
entire fortune, to his friend Maxime? Still the two friends agreed too
fully on the same opinion to allow her to hesitate. Thus, when she fell
asleep, she had formed a decision. She had vowed to herself that she
would meet all the torments they might inflict upon her, with the
stoicism of the Indian who is bound to the stake, and to be, among
her enemies, like a dead person, whom no insult can galvanize into the
semblance of life.

During the following weeks it was not so difficult for her to keep
her promises. Whether it were weariness or calculation, they seemed to
forget her. Except at meals, they took no more notice of her than if she
had not been in existence.

That sudden access of affection which had moved Count Ville-Handry
on that evening when he thought his daughter in danger had long since
passed away. He only honored her with ironical glances, and never
addressed a word to her. The countess observed a kind of affectionate
reserve, like a well-disposed person who has seen all her advances
repelled, and who is hurt, but quite ready to be friends at the first
sign. Mrs. Brian never opened her thin lips but to growl out some
unpleasant remark, of which a single word was intelligible: shocking!
There remained the Hon. M. Elgin, whose sympathetic pity showed itself
daily more clearly. But, since Maxime's warning, Henrietta avoided him
anxiously.

She was thus leading a truly wretched life in this magnificent palace,
in which she was kept a prisoner by her father's orders; for such she
was; she could no longer disguise it from herself. She felt at every
moment that she was watched, and overlooked most jealously, even when
they seemed to forget her most completely. The great gates, formerly
almost always open, were now kept carefully closed; and, when they were
opened to admit a carriage, the concierge mounted guard before them, as
if he were the keeper of a jail. The little garden-gate had been secured
by two additional enormous locks; and whenever Henrietta, during her
walks in the garden, came near it, she saw one of the gardeners watch
her with anxious eyes. They were apparently afraid, not only that she
might escape, but that she might keep up secret communications with
the outer world. She wanted to be clear about that; and one morning she
asked her father's permission to send to the Duchess of Champdoce,
and beg her to come and spend the day with her. But Count