"Listen to me, both of you," she said; "I have wronged you both, but Heaven knows how I repent of my evil deeds. I do not want to cause any more sorrow to either of you, as I must do if I tell Una what she asks. Therefore, let me go away, in silence, and be sure that in her case ignorance is bliss." "I will not believe you, Madame Lorraine, if you assert that aught of shame belongs to the parentage of my wife," Eliot said, hotly, and she uttered a long, long sigh. "Whatever it is, I have a right to some name, however humble," Una said; but Mme. Lorraine preserved a silence that was significant. Eliot drew his arm tenderly about Una's waist, as he said: "Dearest, you have a right to one of the proudest names in Boston. Why trouble your little head about the past?" But Una was obstinate. Sylvie's sneers had made her bitter and determined. She looked with dark, impatient eyes into the face of the woman who hated her with relentless hate. "Speak, madame," she said, icily. "Do you not see that you must reveal the secret now, whatever it be, that has thrown its stigma over my life?" "I am in your power, monsieur; you can denounce me for my attempted crime, if I refuse to answer you," madame said, looking at Eliot. "Do you still insist?" He looked at Una; she murmured "Yes" through pale, determined lips, but she did not see the covert triumph in the eyes of her foe. "Very well, then," said the actress, with a heavy sigh. She looked at Eliot with grave eyes. "Monsieur Van Zandt, I must make at least one condition," she exclaimed. "Yes?" he said, inquiringly. "It is this: you will leave me alone with your wife while I reveal to her her name and true identity. It will be best thus. The secret will then be her own, and it will be optional with her whether she should reveal it to you or not." He bowed affirmatively. "I have no objection to your plan, madame, and small curiosity over your secret. Whatever you may reveal to Una, it will in nowise lessen my regard for my wife." He went out and left them together. Mme. Lorraine turned her vindictive eyes upon Una hissing fiercely: "Do you not know that you are very foolish in this matter? Would I have treated you as I did for fifteen years, if you had not been--" "What?" asked Una, impatiently, as she paused significantly, and regarded her with angry, scornful eyes. Bending forward until her writhing lips almost touched the small, pink ear of the girl, Mme. Lorraine finished her broken sentence in a hissing voice like that of a serpent. It was as if Mme. Lorraine had struck the girl upon the face. She reeled backward with a low, gasping, terrified cry, and sunk to the floor. * * * * *