of society, but
it was true. The chrysalis was nearing the butterfly stage of life and
beating the bars with her wings.

The secret exultation of Justine Delande in her shadowy hold on Major
Alan Hawke caused her to furtively lead Nadine Johnstone to the head of
the great stairway, when Hawke made his adieux.

"He is a handsome young officer," timidly whispered the girl, shrinking
back out of sight. "What can he have in common with my father? I thought
he was some old veteran." And the awakened heart of Justine Delande
bounded in delight. She would have joyed to tell Nadine of her own
romantic budding friendship, but a wholesome fear tied her tongue, and
she was only happy when caressing the diamond bracelet that night, which
encircled her arm, while with dry and aching eyes she waited for the
dawn.

While Hugh Johnstone paced the veranda of his lonely marble palace that
night, a prey to vague fears, and unwilling to face the accusing eyes of
his daughter, Major Alan Hawke, with a sudden astonishment, stood mute
before the splendid woman who received him in the mysterious bungalow.
There was scant ceremony of greeting between them, for Berthe Louison
impatiently grasped his hands.

"He is here, and the girl, too," she said, with blazing eyes. She stood
robed as a queen before her secret agent. "Where were you? You left me
here to wait in a torment of anxiety."

"I have just come from his dinner table," quietly said the startled
Major. "They are both here, and well. I am already intimate at the
house, but I have not seen the girl. I feared being followed or I would
have met you at the train." He marveled at her royal beauty. She was
conscious now of the power of wealth, and some hidden fire glowed in her
veins. "What can I do for you? He watches me. I can only come at night."

"Ah!" the lady sternly said, "we must then play at hide and seek!"

Ringing a silver bell twice, Madame Louison sank into a chair. Alan
Hawke started up, inquiringly, as Jules and Marie entered the room from
an ante-room, whose door was left ajar.

"Jules! Marie!" calmly said Madame Louison. "This gentleman is my secret
business agent. He will call here in the evenings very often. He has
pass keys of his own, and you need not announce him. He is the only
person who has the right to be in my house--at all times." The husband
and wife bowed in silence and, at a gesture from their mistress,
departed silently, having mentally photographed the