Suddenly upon the stillness of the night the splendor of a human voice broke forth; the prima-donna was trying her voice. A violin wailed a note. A hand ran up and down the keys of the piano. Warburton held his breath and waited. He had heard Tosti's _Ave Maria_ many times, but he never will forget the manner in which it was sung that night. The songstress was care-free and among persons she knew and liked, and she put her soul into that magnificent and mysterious throat of hers, And throbbing all through the song was the vibrant, loving voice of the violin. And when the human tones died away and the instruments ceased to speak, Warburton felt himself swallowing rapidly. Then came Schumann's _Traumerei_ on the strings, Handel's _Largo_, Grieg's _Papillon_, and a _ballade_ by Chaminade. Then again sang the prima-donna; old folksy songs, sketches from the operas grand and light, _Faust_, _The Barber of Seville_, _La Fille de Madame Angot_. In all his days Warburton had never heard such music. Doubtless he _had_--even better; only at this period he was in love. The imagination of love's young dream is the most stretchable thing I know of. Seriously, however, he was a very good judge of music, and I am convinced that what he heard was out of the ordinary. But I must guide my story into the channel proper. During the music Karloff and Colonel Annesley drifted into the latter's study. What passed between them I gathered from bits recently dropped by Warburton. "Good God, Karloff, what a net you have sprung about me!" said the colonel, despairingly. "My dear Colonel, you have only to step out of it. It is the eleventh hour; it is not too late." But Karloff watched the colonel eagerly. "How in God's name can I step out of it?" "Simply reimburse me for that twenty thousand I advanced to you in good faith, and nothing more need be said." The count's Slavonic eyes were half-lidded. "To give you back that amount will leave me a beggar, an absolute beggar, without a roof to shelter me. I am too old for the service, and besides, I am physically incapacitated. If you should force me, I could not meet my note save by selling the house my child was born in. Have you discounted it?" "No. Why should I present it at the bank? It does not mature till next Monday, and I am in no need of money." "What a wretch I am!" Karloff raised his shoulders resignedly. "My daughter!" "Or my ducats," whimsically quoted the count. "Come, Colonel; do not waste time in useless retrospection. He stumbles who looks back. I have been thinking of your daughter. I love her, deeply, eternally." "You love her?" "Yes. I love her because she appeals to all that is young and good in me; because she represents the highest type of womanhood. With her as my wife, why, I should be willing to renounce my country, and your indebtedness would be crossed out of existence with one stroke of the pen." The colonel's haggard face grew light with sudden hopefulness.