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Show no I would rather not. She was pleadingr for her pride. and to do that the better she laid her pride aside; yet she never lost her dignity. She was pl ‘adine‘ for her chance ot‘ happiness. toresecine‘ that it wasilikelv to be destroyed. without any reason or any protit to :1 living beinir. by a stranger who would the next moment pass out of her life. Yet. there was no outcry. and there were no tears. Had it been a trick AI ask the ladies~yvould there not have been tears .' llut I thought it a trick and a cheap one. W\\\-Jun mum THE EBONY BOX PRINCESS MARY'S (.‘II‘T BOOK quickly, like a child with a rackingr headache. all that was part ofthe game. 97 Ofeourse, to my mind The letter was dated two years back. but the month was December. and, of course. to antcdate would he the first precaution. " Come, mademoiselle." I said, changing my tone." I invite you very seriously to make a clean breast of it. I wish to take no harsh measures with you if I can avoid them. Tell me t'rankly what news this letter, plainly translated, gives to General Trochu in Paris." She was trying to make me believe that there were loituletters in the box r~(W)ilipl'otiiis'illu‘ loveletters. Now. I flame that there were no loveilctters in the box. I had seen the Frenchman's pretty way of savingr thanks. I had noticed how the. caress hurt. her just throiie'h what it lacked. He was the friend. you see, and nothing more ; she was the lover and the only lover of the pair. ‘ I opened the box accordingly. Mademoiselle Sophie turned away abruptly. and sitting" down in 7a chair shaded her eves with her hand. I emptied the letters out on to a table, turning)' the box upside down, and thus the first which I took up and read was the one which lay at the very bottom. As I read it it seemed that every suspicion I had tormed was established. She had hinted at lovedetters. she had spoken of secrets sacred to a girl; and the letter was not even addressed to her. It was addressed to Madame de \lilletaneuse; it was a letter which. it it meant no more than what was implied upon the surl'ace. would have long since found destruction in the w'aste~papei‘ basket. For it purported to be merely the acceptance (it an invitation to dinner at the town house of Madame de \1lletaneuse in the I‘laubotn‘g St. Germain. It was signed only " Vone," she answered. " Very well." said I. and I took up the nextletter. Ah. M. Armand writes again a week later. It was evidently a good dinner. and M. Armand is properly grateful. The gratitude, indeed. was rather excessive. rather provincial. took the words and the dates, and it seemed to me that I began to see light. So much stress was laid upon must signify some event of importance. dinner in the future. I imagined that to pass this warning into Paris. The With gratitude that the dinner had been "dinner" stood for "engagement"! The sortie from Paris which with the family. I looked at Mademoiselle Sophie sternly, "So all this pother was about a, mere invitation to dinner l" ()nee let it be known that M. Armand will dine with Madame de Villetaneuse m the I‘aubourg' St. (Jermain. and you are humiliated. You lose your chance ot‘ happiness, and I, too, shall tind HHM‘IIIAl-ll good ‘ tune suffering the panes of remorse," and I read the letter slowly aloud to her, word by word. blie returned no answer. She sat. with her hand shadimr her face, and she rocked her head backwards and torwards continually find rather back the dinner, that the word The tirst letter spoke. ot' a it had not been possible second letter mentioned successful. \Vell. suppose letter would ret'er to the our lines and captured Ville That seemed likely. letaneuse gave the dinner; General Troehu made Madame de \'il« the sortie. " Madameide Villetaneuse " stood for " (leneral Trochu." be Armand? to pursue his stitches, and who, up till now, had no ae<p1aintanec pushed l‘lvrart and Maison Blanche. by a Christian name. "Armand," and the few sentences which composed the letter explained that M. Armand was a distant kmsman of Madame de \Villetaneuse who had just come to Paris It was just the ctt'usion which a young,r man who had not yet learned settpossession might have written on his first introduction to the highest social life of Paris. Certainly the correspomlcnee was very artt'ully designed. But what did it hide? I puzzled over the question; I 'I'hcn \\'ho would \Vhy, the French people outside I'arisrthe provincialsl I had the explanation of that provincial expression ot'gratitude. .\h. no doubt it all seems far-fetched now that we sit quietly about this I, table. But put yourself in the thick of the war and take twenty years oll' your lives I Suppose yourselves young and green. eager for advancement, and just otl' your balance from want of sleep, want of t'ood. want of rest, want of everything. There are very few things which would seem l':utt'etched. It seemed to me that I was decipheringr these letters with absolute accuracy. I saw myself promoted to captain. seconded to the stalt'. I went on with the letters. hoping to Iind an "1 Mott» |