"Carry you away? No; you are not worth it." Leah's indomitable courage, quelled for the moment, blazed up fiercely. She forgot her pain, her disfigured mouth, and faced Katinka in a blind rage. "You--you----" she clenched her hands, and panted like a spent runner. "You have said all; I agree to all." The Russian looked at the wounded mouth with a cruel, calm smile, then sauntered deliberately to the door. There she smiled still more serenely, pointed a mocking finger at her enemy's wry mouth, and slipped away without a word, and almost without a sound. Leah sprang to the mirror. Had this woman marred her beauty? The mouth was swollen, the lips still bleeding; there were wounds within and without, and a rather loose tooth. Leah could have howled aloud at the shame, the humiliation of her defeat. That she should be struck, beaten, mastered--she of all women; she--she! "Ar-r-r! Augh!" she cried, but softly, mindful of danger. Then the thought came to her that she would have to account for her damaged mouth, and with the thought came enlightenment. Passing quickly out of the room, she ascended the stairs rapidly to her room. Half-way up she stumbled and fell. The footman, hearing the fall, ran up and lifted her. He saw that her mouth was bleeding. Natural enough--oh, perfectly natural! "It's them beastly long trains," explained the footman in the servants' hall. CHAPTER XXXII "Never knew you to tumble before, Leah," grumbled the Duke, next morning, when admitted into his wife's bedroom. "Accidents will happen," murmured the Duchess, rather lamely, and too much shaken to be original. "I can't talk, Jim--my mouth is still sore." "What can you expect if you go a mucker? An' th' season's startin', too. You'll not be able to show with that swellin'." "A week at Firmingham will put me right. Katinka Aksakoff is coming down also." "Heard she looked in last night. What made her call at so late an hour?" "She's worried about her father," lied Leah, prepared for the question. "Had an almighty row with him over that bounder doctor, I expect." Leah nodded languidly. "M. Aksakoff has gone to Southend. I take his daughter with me there, to make peace." "Southend? There's a hole! What's he doin' in that roost?" "How should I know? I'll reconcile the two if I can, and Katinka can be my companion at Firmingham." "Dull company," confessed Jim, candidly; "she never could flirt." "That will be no drawback," said his wife, dryly. "Go away, please." "What lie am I to tell 'bout your sickness?" "Tell the truth, by way of a novelty; or if you prefer a lie, say that I have appendicitis. One must be fashionable, even in diseases."