"No, _ma chere_, I tell you a secret which is known in the _Chancellerie_ of a certain Power antagonistic to your country," he responded. "I have told madame the truth for her own benefit." "You would try to poison my mind against Dudley Chisholm by hints such as these!" she cried, magnificent in her sudden fury. "You!--You! But let me tell you that I love him--that--that--" "That you refuse to believe my word!" he said, concluding her unfinished sentence. "Yes, that I absolutely refuse to believe you!" she declared emphatically, facing him boldly in a manner which showed that her nature had revolted against this attempt to denounce the man she loved. "_C'est assez_!" he laughed with an air of nonchalance the moment he had blown a cloud of smoke from his lips. "Madame has spoken!" CHAPTER FIFTEEN. IS TOLD IN THE GRASS COUNTRY. Throughout November Dudley remained in town tied to the House by his official duties, and saw little of Claudia, who had gone into Leicestershire for the hunting. Riding to hounds was her favourite sport, and she was one of the best horse-women within fifty miles of Market Harborough. Each season she went on a visit to Lady Atteridge, whose husband had a box right in the centre of the hunting-country, and at every meet she was a conspicuous figure. An acquaintance she made in the field with the late Empress of Austria, during a run with the Pytchley across the Grafton country, ripened into a warm friendship, and on many occasions she had entertained her now lamented Majesty at Albert Gate. Nearly every year some foreign royalty or other is the centre of hunting interest. Unable to enjoy the race over the grass in their own land, they come to England for healthful sport, and generally make Harborough their headquarters. That season it was the Grand-Duke Stanislas who rode to nearly every meet, always accompanied by his equerry. Hence Claudia and he frequently met, but since that evening when he had endeavoured to turn her from the man she loved she had avoided him. She purposely refrained from attending any function at which he might possibly be present, and when they were compelled to meet with the hounds she only bowed, and seldom, if ever, offered him her hand. On his part, he was always fussing about her, scolding her for her too reckless riding across boggy meadows, or at hedges made dangerous by barbed wires, and always holding himself prepared to render her any of those many little services which the hunting-man renders the fair sex in the field. But on her part she was absolutely indifferent to his attentions, and at the same time annoyed that he should thus publicly exhibit his admiration.