He had been picked up by an English vessel bound for Singapore; where, having landed, he lay too ill to be moved for nearly eight months. As soon as he recovered, he worked his way back to Marseilles, and not being able to discover me there, eventually traced me to Paris. There, by dint of arduous perseverance, he found me, just married to another man!” She paused to sip a fluid out of what looked like a medicine-glass. The talking seemed to tire her, and frequently she put her hand to her side as if in pain. Her interlocutor sat like one immovable. If what she were saying were true, he was free--free! Oh the joy of that thought! But he could not believe it--yet. “Why did you not inform me immediately of what had occurred?” he managed to articulate as she placed the glass on the table again, and prepared to continue her story. “Because, if I had done that, I should have had no further claim on you,” she replied promptly. “And knowing that you were in prosperous circumstances, I was obliged to make use of that knowledge. Armand had scarcely a _sou_ in the world; I had very little more. Money we were forced to secure from somewhere, and you were our only hope.” “But can’t you realize how cruel it was to have kept me in ignorance all these years?” he pursued reproachfully. “I would willingly have done my best for you and--your husband, if I had known the true facts of the case.” “Ah, that is what you say now,” she rejoined dubiously. “I doubt if you would have said so then. Well, to continue my story, Armand, never having properly recovered from his illness, gradually grew weaker and died, leaving me in very low water for a time. Then, luckily for me, I came across an English lady, a Mrs. Hall. She was only a chance acquaintance, for I met her in a circulating library where I happened to find a pocket-book she had lost, but she took a liking to me at first sight. After having visited her constantly, I went to stay with her for a time, and eventually she introduced me to her friend, Lady Elstree, of Portland Place, London, who was in need of a companion. Lady Elstree was one of those shrinking kind of women who always seek refuge behind a stronger mind, and want even the most trivial matters decided for them. Before I had been with her a month, I was able to rule her whole household as though I were its legitimate mistress. Her husband, Sir Richard, although not a doctor, dabbled in therapeutics and hygiene, and spent most of his time in his laboratory, never troubling much about how his wife amused herself. He paid her bills with automatic regularity, and fortunately failed to notice that they almost doubled themselves during my _régime_. Being so pleasantly situated, my old love for the turf revived; and taking my advice, Lady Elstree backed certain horses that I happened to fancy. Sometimes they won, more often they lost; but when they did win, I retained five per cent. commission. Very soon I