"From what does her strange fear arise?" he asked, bending towards her in his eagerness to learn the truth. "An overwhelming terror holds her to Zertho. It is a bond which, although he may be hateful to her, as undoubtedly he is, she cannot break. She must become Princess d'Auzac." "She fears lest he should expose some hidden secret of her past?" he suggested. "I don't say that," she answered. "Remember I have only suspicions. Nevertheless, from whatever cause arises her terrible dread its result is the same--it prevents her from becoming your wife." "Yes," he admitted, plunged in gloomy reflections. "It does. I have come out here from London to see her, but she will tell me nothing beyond the fact that she is betrothed to this man, Zertho d'Auzac. At first I believed that the attractions of wealth had proved too strong for her to resist; but your words, in combination with hers, are proof positive that there is some strange, dark secret underlying her engagement to him." "He has forced her to it," his fair visitor said in a harsh voice. "He's absolutely unscrupulous." "You know him?" "Yes," she answered, with a slight hesitancy. "His career has been a curious one. Not long ago he was a fellow-adventurer with Captain Brooker, and well-known in all the gaming-houses in Europe--at Monte Carlo, Spa, Ostend, Namur, and Dinant--as one who lived by exercising his superior intelligence over his fellow-men. He was an `escroc'--one who lived by his wits, won money at the tables, and when luck was against him did not hesitate to descend to card-sharping in order to secure funds. He was the black sheep of a noble family, an outcast, a cheat and a swindler," she went on with a volubility that surprised him. "He possessed all Erle Brooker's shrewdness without any of his good qualities; for, although the Captain may be an adventurer he has never stooped to meanness. He has always lost and won honourably, regarding his luck, good or ill, with the same imperturbable grim humour and reckless indifference. In the days of his prosperity his hand was ever in his pocket to assist his fellow-gamesters upon whom Misfortune had laid a heavy hand, and more than one young man, drawn to the tables by the hope of winning, has been held back from ruin by his kindly and timely advice. The one was, and is still, a dishonest, despicable knave; while the other was a man of honour, truth and singleness of heart. Suddenly, not long ago, the fortunes of Zertho d'Auzac changed, for his father died and he found himself possessor of a truly princely income and estates. He left the gaming-tables, burned the packs of cards with which he had fleeced so many unsuspecting ones, and returned to Luxembourg to claim his possessions. Since then he has led a life of ease and idleness; yet he is still now, as he ever was, vicious, recreant, and utterly unprincipled." "And to this man Liane is bound?"