“I am but too happy when any services of mine can rescue the fame of a great family from reproach, sir,” replied she, proudly; for all the control she had heretofore imposed upon her temper seemed at last to have yielded to offended dignity. “Happily for that illustrious house--happily for you, too--I am one of a very few who know of Count Wahnsdorf's doings. To have suffered your antagonist in a duel to be tracked, arrested, and imprisoned in an Austrian fortress, when a word from you had either warned him of his peril or averted the danger, was bad enough; but to have stigmatized his name with cowardice, and to have defamed him because he was your rival, was far worse.” Wahnsdorf struck the table with his clenched fist till it shook beneath the blow, but never uttered a word, while with increased energy she continued,-- “Every step of this bad history is known to me; every detail of it, from your gross and insulting provocation of this poor friendless youth to the last scene of his committal to a dungeon.” “And, of course, you have related your interesting narrative to Ida?” cried he. “No, sir; the respect which I have never lost for those whose name you bear had been quite enough to restrain me, had I not even other thoughts.” “And what may they be?” asked he. “To take the first opportunity of finding myself alone with you, to represent how nearly it concerns your honor that this affair should never be bruited abroad; to insist upon your lending every aid to obtain this young man's liberation; to show that the provocation came from yourself; and, lastly, all-painful though it be, to remove from him the stain you have inflicted, and to reinstate him in the esteem that your calumny may have robbed him of. These were the other thoughts I alluded to.” “And you fancy that I am to engage in this sea of trouble for the sake of some nameless bastard, while in doing so I compromise myself and my own honor?” “Do you prefer that it should be done by another, Count Wahnsdorf?” asked she. “This is a threat, madam.” “All the speedier will the matter be settled if you understand it as such.” “And, of course, the next condition will be for me to resign my pretensions to Ida in his favor,” said he, with a savage irony. “I stipulate for nothing of the sort; Count Wahnsdorf's pretensions will be to-morrow just where they are to-day.” “You hold them cheaply, madam. I am indeed unfortunate in all my pursuit of your esteem.” “You live in a sphere to command it, sir,” was her reply, given with a counterfeited humility; and whether it was the tone of mingled insolence and submission she assumed, or simply the sense of his own unworthiness in her sight, but Wahnsdorf cowered before her like a frightened child. At this moment the servant entered, and presented a visiting-card to the Princess.