e to the new
excavations in the Forum," added the priest, as he took his leave.

The Princess and Monsieur Leroy were left alone.

"Shall we?" he asked after a moment's silence, and waited anxiously for
the answer.

"I am afraid They will not come to-night, Doudou," said the Princess.
"You have excited yourself in argument. You know that always has a bad
effect."

"That man irritates me," answered Monsieur Leroy, peevishly. "Why do you
receive him?"

He spoke in the tone of a spoilt child--a spoilt child of forty, or
thereabouts.

"I thought you liked him," replied the Princess, very meekly. "I will
give orders that he is not to be received. We will not go to the Forum
with him."

"No, no! How you exaggerate! You always think that I mean a great deal
more than I say. I only said that he irritated me."

"Why should you be irritated for nothing? You know it is bad for you."

She looked at him with an air of concern, and there was a gentleness in
her eyes which few had ever seen in them.

"It does not matter," answered Monsieur Leroy, crossly.

He had risen, and he brought a very small and light mahogany table from
a corner. It was one of those which used to be made during the second
Empire in sets of six and of successive sizes, so that each fitted each
under the next larger one. He moved awkwardly and yet without noise;
there was something very womanish in his figure and gait.

He set the little table before the Princess, very close to her, lit a
single candle, which he placed on the floor behind an arm-chair, and
turned out the electric light. Then he sat down on the opposite side of
the table and spread out his hands upon it, side by side, the right
thumb resting on the left. The Princess did the same. They glanced at
each other once or twice, hardly distinguishing each other's features in
the gloom. Then they looked steadily down upon the table, and neither
stirred for a long time.

"I am sure They will not come," said the Princess at last, in a very low
voice.

"Hush!"

Silence again, for a quarter of an hour. Somewhere in the room a small
clock, or a watch, ticked quickly, with a little rhythmical, insisting
accent on the fourth beat.

"It moved, then!" whispered the Princess, excitedly.

"Yes. Hush!"

The little table certainly moved, with a queerly soft rocking motion, as
if its feet only just touched the carpet and supported no weight. The
Princess's hands felt as if they were floating ov