"Exactly what I say," the Princess continued. "Your father made huge gifts to his relatives during the last few years of his life, and he left enormous sums in charity. To you he left the remainder of his estate, which all the world believed to amount to at least a million pounds. But when things came to be realized, all his securities seemed to have depreciated. The legacies were paid in cash. The depreciation of his fortune all fell upon you. When everything had been paid, there was something like twenty-five thousand pounds left. More than half of that has gone in your education, and in an allowance to myself since I have had the charge of you. There is a little left in the hands of Monsieur Laplanche, but very little indeed. What there is we owe for your dresses, the rent of this house, and other things." "You mean," Jeanne interrupted bewildered, "that I have no money at all?" "Practically none," the Princess answered. "Now you can see why it is so important that you should marry a rich man." Jeanne was bewildered. It was hard to grasp these things which her stepmother was telling her. "If this be true," she said, "how is it that every one speaks of me as being a great heiress?" The Princess glanced at her with a contemptuous smile. "You do not suppose," she said, "that I have found it necessary to take the whole world into my confidence." "You mean," Jeanne said, "that people don't know that I am not a great heiress?" "Certainly not," the Princess replied, "or we should scarcely be here." "The Count de Brensault?" Jeanne asked. "He does not know, of course," the Princess answered. "He is a rich man. He can afford quite well to marry a girl without a DOT." Jeanne's head fell slowly between her hands. The suddenness of this blow had staggered her. It was not the loss of her fortune so much which affected her as the other contingencies with which she was surrounded. She tried to think, and the more she thought the more involved it all seemed. She looked up at last. "If my fortune is really gone," she said, "why do you let people talk about it, and write about me in the papers as though I were still so rich?" The Princess shrugged her shoulders. "For your own sake," she answered. "It is necessary to find you a husband, is it not, and nowadays one does not find them easily when there is no DOT." Jeanne felt her cheeks burning. "I am to be married, then," she said slowly, "by some one who thinks I have a great deal of money, and who afterwards will be able to turn round and reproach me for having deceived him." The Princess laughed. "Afterwards," she said, "the man will not be too anxious to let the world know that he has been made a fool of. If you play your cards properly, the afterwards will come out all right." Jeanne rose slowly to her feet.