The Powers and Maxine

wn in which the almost equally unfortunate Maxine had come to the theatre. I did not even stop to take off my make-up, for though the play was an unusually sho

till be in time to keep my appointment with Ivor Dundas, f

ting, if possible learn in a moment or two whether he had really found out the truth, and then act ac

e theatre, yet Godensky knew me at once, and came

e said. "A hundre

arianne, who followed me closely), and several stage-carpenters, with other employés of the theatre, were within

sian, though he had spoken in French.

d in a moment," he said. "So

sighed. "Can't it wa

m, and to a certain

uestion, if you guessed

id he know-not merel

u," I said quietly, th

d. "Really, I'm sure you won't regret it if y

here. But I'll stop for you, and wait at the corner Rue Eugène Beauhar

send your maid home in a ca

e except French-and a little Englis

f. In that case, she would not have minded, for she likes Raoul, admires him as a "dream of a young man," and already suspected what I hadn't yet

top, and almost immediately afterwards Godensky appeared. He got in and took the place at

imed. "Please

pare you if I could. You speak as if you grudged me ev

broke in. "You know I've

That happens with women sometimes. I want to warn you of a great danger that threa

very mysterious, Count Godensky. And I'm Mademoise

myself as your 'intimate friend' when I have done what I hope to do f

as I did, would have fainted. But it would have been better for me to die and be out of

perfectly natural as I exclaimed: "Oh, the 'document' again. The one you spoke about when

f it is kno

a lost d

e to me for the help I'm only too glad to give

e what the document is, and how it concerns me?

inly before our eyes at this instant as though it were in-let us say your hands, or-du Laurier'

d you she can't unders

n never tell, in these da

satisfaction of showing that it hurt. He wanted to c

densky, if you throw out such lurid hints about my poor, fat Mar

ou want to know. The document I speak of is the one you took out of the Foreign Off

seem to think I am a kleptomaniac. I can't imagine what I should

agine," said G

ment it was. For, joking apart, th

ion, it's less against

ation against him. Why

warn

on't dare make it

thus far, because to do so wo

"You are ver

hich would mean certain ruin for du Laurier. I love you as much as I ever did; even more, because, in common with most men, I value what I find

entioned?" I asked, my heart drummin

es

ed?" (Oh, I was keeping myself well under control, though

o make. Half a second-no more; yet that hardly perceptible he

e person over whom I have such an influence that he will

ave done so, some above Raoul in authority, some below; but I was certain that not one of them was an intimate friend of Count Godensky's. If he had suspected anything the day he met me coming out of the Foreign Office he might, of course, have hinted his suspicions to one

e'd argued, no doubt-an emotional woman, already wrought up to a high pitch of nervous excitement. Perhaps he had expected to have easy work with me. And I don't think that my silence after his

aid at last,

helian in type than any other dark, thin man with a hook nose, keen eyes, heavy browed; a prominent chin and a sharply waxed, military moustache trained to point upwar

, "I think it's time

answer? You c

the same honour. You asked me to hear what you had to say to-night, and I have heard it;

nouncing du Laurier's doom,

don't k

t made myself

haven't made yours

il have I fai

told you I know nothing about it. You

I

ng what it is-to sa

d why I can't

to my mind. You understood before you came into my carriage that

-frightened me horribly, just as I had begun to have confide