"She was preparing to depart when an Englishman, who had been lunching at the other end of the room, came over, and, with a word of apology, sat down by her side. He saw that she was young, and a fellow-countryman, and he told her very gravely that he was sure she could not be aware of the character of the man with whom she had been lunching. Her eyes grew wide open with horror. The man, he said, was the illegitimate son of a French nobleman, and his mother had been married to a guide--her guide! He had perhaps the worst character of any man in Paris. He had been tried for murder, imprisoned for forgery, and he was now suspected of being the leader of a band of desperate criminals who were dreaded all over Paris. This and other things he told her of the man whom she had just married. The girl listened as though turned to stone, with the piece of paper which he had given her crumpled up in her hands. Then the police came. They asked her questions. She pretended at first to know nothing. At last she addressed the commissionary. If she gave him the address where this young man could be found, he and all his friends, might she depart without mention being made of her, or her name appearing in any way? The commissionary agreed, and she gave him the piece of paper. The Englishman--it was Gilbert Deyes--took her back to her hotel, and the police captured Jean le Roi and the whole band of his associates. The girl returned to England that night. Jean le Roi was sentenced to six years' penal servitude. His time was up last week." "What a diabolical plot!" Macheson exclaimed. "But the marriage! It could have been annulled, surely?" "Perhaps," she answered, "but I did not dare to face the publicity. I felt that I should never be able to look any one in the face again. I had given my name to the guide Johnson as Clara Hurd. I hoped that they might never find me." "They cannot do you any harm," Macheson declared. "Let me go with you to the lawyers. They will see that you are not molested." She shook her head. "It is not so easy," she said. "The marriage was quite legal. To have it annulled I should have to enter a suit. The whole story would come out. I could never live in England afterwards." "But you don't mean," he protested, "to remain bound to this blackguard all your life!" "How can I free myself," she asked, "except by making myself the laughing-stock of the country?" "Why did you send for me?" he asked bluntly. "To ask for your advice--and to protect me," she added, with a shiver. "It is not only money that Jean le Roi wants! It is vengeance because I betrayed him." "As for that, I won't leave you except when you send me away," he declared. "And my advice! If you want that, the right thing to me seems simple enough. Go at once to your lawyers. They will tell you the proper course. At the worst, the man could be bought off for the present." She raised her head. "I will not give him one penny," she declared. "I have always sworn that."