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 up with Jacynth, and telling him how she had fascinated the steward of the steamer, until, with her customary light-heartedness, she had almost forgotten the gravity of the errand on which she came. Jacynth's dark, clean-shaven face, with the imperturbable expression and the firmly molded jaw, was visible over her slim shoulder.

But, at the sight of Mme. de Vigny, her old enemy and rival, all the merriment and infantile innocence in Fenella's lovely audacious face faded suddenly; her tawny eyes flashed with the tigerish gleam Frank remembered so well, her soft red mouth grew hard and set. "I perceive," she said icily, "that I am de trop. I was not aware that you were well enough to receive a visitor, Lord Francis. Mr. Jacynth, will you please take me away?"

"Fenella!" cried Frank in an agony. "Let me explain! This, this she-fiend, this mocking devil has come to try and persuade me that it was I—I who stabbed Count de Mürger with my own hand! Tell me, for pity's sake, that you at least do not believe it!"

"For once in her life," said Fenella, with a touch of her old airy impertinence, "Mme. de Vigny has spoken the truth. My dear Frank, I would willingly oblige you if possible, but I cannot. I saw you do it with my own eyes!"

The unhappy Frank staggered at these terrible words. "My own wife! She says she saw me