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He went to the , and, putting aside the curtains, looked out at

the night, seeing nothing; then he came back

"Put the dinner back for a quarter of an hour, and send word to her and

ask her to go into your boudoir I ait her there"

"Is there no other way, Drake?" she asked, pitying him from the bottom

of her heart

"There is none," he said frankly "It is ht to have found

out her address; but it is no use reproaching oneself Send to her,

countess!"

She left the room, and Drake went back to the duke, talked for a moment

or two, then went up to the countess' room and waited He had to face an

ordeal more severe than any other that had hitherto fallen to his not

uneventful life; but faced it had to be; and he would have gone through

fire and water to save Nell a h, it must be confessed, he felt little pity for her

Presently the door opened; but it was Burden who entered She was

looking pale and e from illness, and Drake, even at that moment of strain and