you convince your
husband that it is wicked to kill his fellow-men by the myriad--that
love of woman is better than glory--decide him to go into a cottage by
the Mediterranean with you, and--sell us the invention. We could put it
to a righteous end; clear Africa of cannibals, that the merchants'
stores, and farms to raise produce to fill them, should replace
cane-huts. But I doubt you will succeed!"

"Never!" she exclaimed, afraid that her hopelessness would injure her,
for she would be the creditor of this remorseless combination without
any prospect of repaying them. But all resistance was useless, she was
convinced; she had to submit or she would be expunged from life. She who
had fancied herself so powerful was but the lowly, abject subaltern at
the beck of a preponderating power of which she understood no more the
details than the aim and principle.

"There is always a second course," observed Von Sendlingen slowly. "That
weak, inexperienced, young Italian, who loves you passionately."

"Antonino?"

"Antonino, yes; he carries the key to that coffer, and the key, too, of
the private cipher in which the inventor records his discoveries."

Shrinking away aghast, her blanched countenance expressed her wonder at
this preternatural knowledge. These master-spies knew everything, even
under this roof, better than the wife! This grim giant carried on an
abominable craft with thorough insight. That she could never emulate,
for completeness was not her forte. Oh, had she but been a virtuous
woman--an honorable wife, he had not dared assume to govern her! but
when of a girl's age, she had acted like a woman; when a wife she had
acted like the dissolute and unwived; when a mother, she had
disembarrassed herself of the token of her glory of maternity. She was
not fit to be anything but the instrument of such universal
conspirators. She whom the viscount had playfully called "Donna Juana!"
had met the Statue of the Commander at last, and once grasped, she would
no more be free.

"I shall report to our committee that we have made our agreement," he
said calmly and then, as he proceeded toward the door with the jolly
swagger of the Marseillais transforming his stalwart and rigid frame, he
added in the southern bland tone, "Delighted to see you again, dear
Madame Clemenceau!"

She did not hear him, for she had sunk too deeply within the abyss. She
regretted she had come back. It is true that the company which he
represente