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 *easily on her cushion of thorns. She breathed hard, her mordant mouth grew set, in her grim eyes were unutterable things.

"One moment, Johnnie," she interposed. "Does Mrs.—er Sanderson quite understand what it means to us?"

"Perfectly," he said, "no one better." The depth of the tone expressed far more than those dry words. "It may help matters," he added, turning to Harriet again, "if I say at once that we are going to ask you to make two decisions in the name of the people you have served so long and so faithfully. And the first is this: Since, as you will see I have been forced, much against my will, to let a third person into our secret, you have now the opportunity of taking your true position in the sight of the world."

Lady Wargrave shivered. Somehow this was a turn of the game she had not been able to foresee.

"That is to say," the Duke went on, "you have now, as far as I am concerned, full liberty to assume your true style and dignity as mistress here. For more than twenty years you have sacrificed yourself for others, but the time has now come when you need do so no longer. What do you say?"

Harriet did not speak. Lady Wargrave was silent also, but a kind of stony horror was freezing her. The whole situation had become so fantastic that she felt the inadequacy of her emotions.

"You shall have a perfectly free hand," the Duke went on. "Assume your position now, and good care shall be taken that you are amply maintained in it. What do you say, my dear?" he added gently.