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 a very dark frown. "You are not even going to try. The wigging you got from Mr. Justice Buffle last time you carried off Marion has for ever deterred you from a second attempt."

"Has it, though?" said the lady, and her fine blue eyes flashed fiercely.

"Yes, it has," said the Honorable John Ruffin with unabated sternness. "You have made up your mind that a duchess can not give the halfpenny press of her country occasion to blaspheme twice."

"But this is a dead snip," said the duchess confidently. "This time I am going to get Marion out of the country."

"You failed before, and you'll fail again," said the Honorable John Ruffin firmly.

"Oh, no, I shan't—not this time," said the duchess even more confidently. "And what does it matter if I do? If they catch me, I shall only get the same old wigging. They daren't send a duchess to prison. The thingumbobs—the middle classes—wouldn't stand it. They'd scream."

"But you can't get Marion out of the country. The moment she's missing Osterley's agents will wire to the police of every port. I shouldn't wonder