"I am sane," retorted the other, swiftly. "I know all. You lured Constantine to Paris; you sold him to my father to hide your iniquity. I saw Helfmann the spy; do you hear--the spy! I bribed him; it took months to bribe him, but in the end I bought the truth. My father--shame to my father--drugged Constantine at your table, and Helfmann as a sham doctor took him to Havre, to Kronstadt, to Moscow. The Grand Duke Sergius"--here she spat when mentioning the hated name--"yes, he, that beast of beasts, sent him to Siberia for life; ar-r-r--for life! do you hear, Judas, Jezebel, animal that you are! I followed there; I followed the man I loved----" "And who did not love you," muttered the Duchess, rocking with the pain of her swollen and bleeding lips. She had seated herself by this time, and did not seek to stem the torrents of insults. "And why?" Katinka flung back her head and her nostrils dilated. "Because you stole his heart that he might do your evil bidding. But he loves me now--with all his heart and soul he loves me now. I went to Tomsk to aid his escape; I followed to Sakhalin. I waited and waited, eating my heart out. Oh, my heart!" she laid her hand on her breast; "oh, my breaking heart! We escaped--he did--I did; we escaped. Do you hear, you who sold him? There were months of terror and sorrow and cruel cold. But God was good; He was kinder than man, more merciful than you, who damned a soul to that frozen hell. God--the good God, whom I adore and worship," she fell on her knees, striking her hands together--"He aided us to reach the waiting ship of Strange, and----" "Strange!" Leah rose, shaken and sick. "Strange!" Katinka leaped up to face her. "The man you bribed with six thousand pounds to take your sin on his soul. I know all about your wickedness; Strange knows; Constantine knows. We will tell the world what we know; and you, shamed, disgraced, beaten, hounded out of your world--ah, down will you fall--fall--unless----" "Unless?" Leah, gripping a chair and swaying, looked up. "Unless?" "You come to Southend to see Constantine." "I refuse." "Then I tell everything. I go to your husband." Leah, in spite of her pain, laughed at the idea. "I go to your police. I tell----" "Stop, I shall come, since you insist upon it." "I do--Constantine likewise. He is ill--very ill; his eyes are blinded by the glare of the snows whither you sent him; he is--oh, my poor angel, my patient saint!--he is----" Stopping abruptly, she looked with an evil eye at the woman she had so shamefully marked. "I will leave you to see the wreck you have made of him. You will come?" The Duchess nodded. "But I can explain all," she mumbled. "Explain it, then, to Constantine," said her enemy, contemptuously. "I go now. Meet me to-morrow at Liverpool Street Station--at the barrier. We can go to Southend by the five o'clock train. Constantine is on board Strange's ship, which lies off Southend." "Ah! Then you mean to----"