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IDALIA

quite evil enough without bringing more upon him."

"We! I fail to apprehend you—"

She gave a little gesture of impatience.

"Monsieur, you have not known me very long, or you would know me too well to attempt those tactics. Evasion answers nothing with me; and why should we attempt it? Our cause is the same, and we both are equally aware that this brave-hearted gentleman was the prey of its viler adherents."

"But——"

"Pardon me; I have said we both know it. I have grace enough to blush for it: and you——?"

For the moment a faint blush of shame kindled over his face; he was for the moment silenced, embarrassed, uncertain how to reply; he had never dreamed that his share in the Carpathian attack—which his intelligence had directed unseen, though his hand was not active, nor his complicity involved in it—had been suspected by her, and he was now almost, for the first time in his life, astray in the twilight of bewildered doubts, of intricate apprehensions.

She laughed slightly again,

"Ah! I told you you did not know me; you