Late on the evening of Senator Sherman’s arrival at Prior’s Tarrant he was alone with General Sadgrove in the smoking-room, the Duke of Beaumanoir and Forsyth having avowedly gone up to bed. Under the influence of the genial American, and with the Duke himself in a more expansive mood, dinner and the subsequent reunion in the tapestry-room had been prolonged later than recently, and the chiming clock on the mantelpiece tinkled out the hour of midnight as the Senator put the question: "Who the dickens is that Talmage Eglinton woman, Jem?" The General started, but affected a carelessness which he was far from feeling in the trite reply that "Goodness only knew." He proceeded, however, to temper the crudity of the remark with the information that the lady in question was staying in London for the season, professed to hail from Chicago, and was reputed wealthy. "She is hardly the type of American one expects to meet in such a house as this—or wants to meet anywhere," said the Senator. "And," he added, poising the match with which he was about to light another of his own green Havanas, "she is the cause of prejudice in a usually unbiased mind. She has the misfortune to be fashioned in the likeness of one Cora Lestrade, a person of note in my country, whom I once saw in my capacity of Visiting Prison Commissioner. That was three years ago, but of course it can’t be the same woman." "It would be a curious coincidence," was all the General would admit. "She was taken up by Lord and Lady Roseville, impecunious folk who would take up anyone for value received. What was this Cora Lestrade’s particular line of business?" The Senator reflected for a moment. "I don’t think she specialized herself," he said. "Her forte was organization, and I heard that at the time she was taken she bossed a complete outfit, comprising forgers, confidence-men, train-robbers, and high-grade criminals of all sorts, who operated over the entire universe. They used to regard her as a queen. It was hinted at her trial that they were all fascinated by the spell of her charms, though she would never favor any of the crew in that way. Probably that was the secret of her power over them." "You don’t happen to know when her sentence expired?" the General asked, after a pause. "It didn’t expire; she broke jail—an easy matter for one as well served as she was by a clever crowd with unlimited financial resources."