This latest development of the affair was certainly most remarkable. I had never dreamed that to this hitherto unknown woman I had been indebted for the unparalleled success which had attended my career during those past six years. Yet, from the facts she subsequently placed before me, it would seem that it was at her instigation that I first dabbled in finance. She, or rather her agents, had obtained for me the negotiation of a substantial loan to Prince Ferdinand, and this had been followed by all sorts of concessions, not one of which had tuned out badly. The mysterious Edna, whom I had always believed to be a typical blouse-and-bicycle girl of the true Kensington type, was actually a political agent of that most turbulent of all the European States. I sat looking at her in wonderment. She possessed a superb carriage, a smart, well-dressed figure, a smiling, intelligent face, white, even teeth, a complexion just a trifle dark, but betraying no trace of foreign birth. Her English was perfect, her manner purely that of the patrician, while her surprising tact possessed all the _finesse_ of an accomplished diplomatist. "I confess that I have all along been in entire ignorance of my indebtedness to you," I said, after listening to her while she explained how obediently I had followed the instructions contained in the letters signed "Avel," and how I had so materially advanced the interests of the Principality that the thanks of the Bulgarian Parliament, or Sobranje had been tendered to me, and the Prince himself had a couple of years ago conferred upon me the highest distinction within his power. Yet it was more than strange that while this shrewd grey-eyed woman, the possessor of the secret of that puzzling crime, held aloof from me, she had ingeniously contrived that I should become the unwitting catspaw of an unstable State. I was thinking of Mabel--my thoughts were always of my lost love--and I was wondering how I might obtain from this woman the secret of her whereabouts. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. EDNA MAKES A PROPOSAL. "Well," I inquired at last; "and your reason for seeing me this evening?" She hesitated, as though uncertain in what manner to place her project before me. She moved uneasily, and, rising, drew forth a large dispatch-box from its leathern case and placed it upon the table. I noticed that the outer case bore a count's coronet with a cipher beneath. Having opened the box with a tiny gold master-key which hung upon her bracelet, she drew forth some official-looking papers, and with them returned to her chair. "You have already been entrusted with a secret, which you have not betrayed--the secret of that unfortunate occurrence on the evening when accident first brought us together," she commenced gravely. "Therefore I feel convinced that any further confidence placed in you will not be abused."