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She had sunk into a chair Her hands were folded in a listless manner in her lap, and her eyes were lowered, her cheeks pale But the swift heave of her bosom toldof the bargain that I made with Chatellerault?" she asked in a voice that held, I thought, some trace of misery

"Chatellerault was a cheat!" I cried "No man of honour in France would have accounted hier I paid it, not because I thought the payht offer you a cul proof of my sincerity"

"Be that as it may," said she, "I passed him my word to--to marry him, if he set you at liberty"

"The promise does not hold, for when you made it I was at liberty already Besides, Chatellerault is dead by now--or very near it"

"Dead?" she echoed, looking up

"Yes, dead We fought--" The ghost of a s, passed like a ray of light across her face "Pardieu!" I cried, "you dothere It was not by my hands that he fell It was not by ave her the whole details of the affair, including the information that Chatellerault had been no party to my release, and that for his atte would have dealt very hardly with hi himself upon his sword: There was a silence when I had done Roxalanne sat on, and seemed to ponder To let all that I had said sink in and advocate my cause, as to me was very clear it must, I turned aside and moved to one of the s

"Why did you not tell me before?" she asked suddenly "Why--oh, why--did you not confess to me the whole infamous affair as soon as you came to love me, as you say you did?"

"As I say I did?" I repeated after her "Do you doubt it? Can you doubt it in the face of what I have done?"

"Oh, I don't knohat to believe!" she cried, a sob in her voice "You have deceived ht on the river? Or later, when I pressed you in this very house? Or again, the other night in the prison of Toulouse?"

"You ask me why Can you not answer the question for yourself? Can you not conceive the fear that was in ? The fear that if you cared a little, I ht for all time stifle such affection as you bore me? The fear that I must ruin your trust in me? Oh, made defeat to Chatellerault, in first paying the wager?"