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 She'd ruin him for vengeance! And the calm of her! She'll go to any length. Poor Lucius! How wise he was to tell me!" And running in and out of these comments, like an arabesque movement in a Persian rug, stood the Pharisee's thankfulness in every tone and variation. Never had Philippa felt more virtuous than now as she beheld the iniquities of her friend's character in all their blackness. Yet she must contain her righteous indignation if she was to save Valdeck from the net that would be cast about him.

Victoria's story reached its climax. Philippa's mental exclamation points multiplied. His mother's pin that he gave me out of his great love of me a part of the plunder! What won't she say! The very idea! She ought to be buried alive for such infamy. Never mind, a day of retribution will come, and the dispensing hand of justice may be the small white-gloved one lying here so meekly. She looked at the hand meditatively.

"What will you do?" she asked, at length, "for, of course, you will have to prove such a remarkable story." 167