I
entertain no such desire. Captain, I 've an idea that you 're in
possession of my portfolio."

"What puts that into your head?" inquired the Captain in a rather
satirical tone.

"From what you said to the Countess I--"

"Ah, I find it so hard to realise that you actually committed that
breach of etiquette," murmured Dieppe, reproachfully.

"And that perhaps--I say only perhaps--you have made free with the
contents. For it seems you 've got rid of Paul de Roustache. Well, I
will not complain--"

"Ah?" said the Captain with a movement of interest.

"But if I lose my money, I must have my money's worth."

"That 's certainly what one prefers when it's possible," smiled the
Captain, indulgently.

"To put it briefly--"

"As briefly as you can, pray," cried Dieppe; but the candle burnt
steadily still, and brevity was the last thing that he desired.

"Give me your papers and you may keep the portfolio."

The Captain's indignation at this proposal was extreme; indeed, it led
him to sit upright again, to fix his eyes on the candle, and to talk
right on end for hard on five minutes--in fact as long as he could find
words--on the subject of his honour as a gentleman, as a soldier, as a
Frenchman, as a friend, as a confidential agent, and as a loyal
servant. Guillaume did not interrupt him, but listened with a smile of
genuine amusement.

"Excellent!" he observed, as the Captain sank back exhausted. "A most
excellent preamble for your explanation of the loss, my dear Captain.
And you will add at the end that, seeing all this, it cannot be doubted
that you surrendered these papers only under absolute compulsion, and
not the least in the world for reasons connected with my portfolio."

"My words were meant to appeal to your own better feelings," sighed the
Captain in a tone of despairing reproach.

"You betray the Count of Fieramondi, your friend; why not betray your
employers also?"

For a moment there was a look in the Captain's eye which seemed to
indicate annoyance, but the next instant he smiled.

"As if there were any parallel!" said he. "Matters of love are
absolutely different, my good friend." Then he went on very
carelessly, "The candle 's low. Why don't you light your lantern?"

"That rascal Paul threw it away, and I had n't time to get it." No
expression, save a mild concern, appeared on Captain Dieppe's face,
although he had discovered a fact of peculiar interest to him. "The
candle will