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 police have been searching for them both, and are inclined to think that the tragedy unsettled the poor lady's reason. However, she went supplied with a replica photograph of Valdeck from the rogues gallery here, and plenty of money. She took no one into her confidence, as far as my informant knows. Strange, isn't it? I can vividly imagine that gaunt, black, half-crazed woman travelling aimlessly over the world in search of the man who killed her daughter, and the woman who aided him. A sensational story from first to last! And now, it seems, from your far-off land a new chapter is to be sent out. I must own I'm interested. Be sure to write me all the news, and don't be surprised if at any moment the steamer lands on the shores of freedom your old friend and companion, Sonia Palintzka."

Victoria re-read the letter, stuck it on her file, and leaned back, running her hands through her heavy hair. "So, the maid had at last been suspected!" She remembered with vivid clearness the scene in the dying child's presence, when the woman hysterically gave in evidence a descrip- 191