Yuki threw a piteous glance toward her husband. "Then shall I accompany, now? I think I can do all, alone." Hagané did not answer her. He held Pierre in a hard gaze. "To-night?" he questioned. "How can I be sure that the seal will be intact?" "Sir!" said Pierre, indignantly, "your suggestion is an insult!" "Ah! do thieves who enter other men's homes to rob them still wave the flag of honor?" Pierre drew back, flushed and scowling, with a muttered curse. Todd gave a great start. It was the first time he had heard the specific charge. How then, if Pierre were a mere common thief, could Yuki be involved? Again he was baffled. He shook his head sadly, and kept silence. Hagané had begun to speak again. "I am willing to refer the matter to arbitration, but shall not consent to the document remaining here. Let it be put into the hands of a third party, until to-night." "Yes," said Yuki, eagerly. "Mr. Todd will keep it. All trust him!" Pierre and Ronsard exchanged apprehensive glances. To refuse was impossible. "An--an--excellent plan," said Ronsard, with a watery beam. "But, since Russia is our ally--" "Utterly unofficial, you know. A purely personal misunderstanding," reminded Todd, not without a gleam of malice. "In your present attitude, Count Ronsard, you can scarcely claim anything further. France's honor hardly rests on--felony! I am willing to hold it; and, if the prince should fail to drive in the sacrificial lamb, otherwise Yuki, France gets the paper, I presume." "Exactly," said Hagané, and Ronsard in a breath. "Only," interpolated Yuki, in her low, clear voice, "no sacrificial lamb is to be driven, your Excellency,--only a woman gaining her soul's desire." Pierre triumphed in glances about the room. Couldn't the fool American see that Yuki was simply dying to get away from old Hagané and come to him! Why this continued talk of sacrifice? It sounded like the Japanese themselves. Pierre sent an ardent, encouraging look to the girl. To his surprise, her face was set steadily upon Hagané, and in his answering gaze was the same embarrassing rapture. "Well," said Todd, sharply, "am I to keep the paper or not?" "My dear colleague," stuttered Ronsard, paddling the air with gestures of concession, "of course, in your keeping it is as safe as--say--in my private desk. Pierre!--" There was a sharp tang to the name. The young man reluctantly handed the envelope to Todd. He took it with a crooked smile. Hagané and Yuki remained calm as statues. "Madame," the host said, with fictitious gayety, "perhaps, as a matter of delicacy, congratulations are not in order; yet allow me to assure you of my good-will and homage!" Yuki met his look. Her face was still expressionless, like a Japanese painting of a high-born lady where repose is the desired essential. Something underlying the white calm disturbed him. After her few gentle words, "I thank your Excellency," he was glad to turn away.