"No, no," he replied coolly. "Why trouble the stars for information that may be had as easily and more definitely elsewhere?" "Then why did you not tell us the true source of your knowledge?" I asked warmly. "Because I had neither right nor desire to betray the person most actively engaged in the affair. To have done so might have cost me my life. I gave you the information you asked, and you saved the lady through my help, without which you would not have known where to turn. You would have been helpless. You paid me ten guineas. Were my services worth the fee?" "Ah, richly," I returned, beginning to see the whole matter of astrology in a new light. "Then why do you complain?" he asked. "A man, naturally, wants to know where his meat comes from, but knowledge, like a diamond, is good found anywhere." "I beg your pardon, Doctor Lilly," I answered, waving my hand as a substitute for hauling down my colors. "I turn you over to Monsieur l'Abbé once more." "I think we understand each other," remarked the Abbé. "You say the king has employed you to set a figure, and that you are to take the solution to him to-night?" "Monsieur l'Abbé is correct," returned Lilly. "I hope the stars may see fit to advise the king to accept my first offer, for it will be the last," said the Abbé. "Possibly the stars may show that in case King Charles sells Dunkirk to London even for a much larger sum than I shall offer, he may be compelled to spend the money and a great deal more in defending the city." "True, true," agreed Lilly. "Possibly the stars may indicate that King Louis loves war," continued the Abbé. "They may show that if King Charles refuses my master's offer, England may be compelled to give up Dunkirk for nothing, or spend a vast deal of money and blood in defending it. If the French king lays siege to Dunkirk, the English people will force King Charles to take one of two courses--defence or abdication. In the latter case he might lose his head, as his father did before him. Furthermore, if King Charles refuses my first offer, my master will withdraw, in which case London also will withdraw. Is it not possible that the stars may tell you all this?" "The conditions you suggest are so probable that one hardly need ask confirmation of the stars, and so reasonably to be expected are the events you predict that, beyond question, stellar revelation will be in accord with your desires. But the stars will say what they will say, and I shall give King Charles the truth from whatever source it comes," said Lilly, lifting his head in righteousness and posing as the embodiment of truth. "That is all I can ask," returned the Abbé, rising to close the interview. "All exceedingly reasonable--reasonable," answered Lilly, bowing.