haved in the most dishonorable way, and she married Prince Simonieff out of spite."
I looked at George with amusement, wondering what piece of scandal I was about to hear. To my surprise he did not return my glance. There came a sudden red flame over his face, which passed away and left him pallid. With bent head and downcast eyes he sat there in silence, so absorbed that he was apparently unconscious of my presence.
I listened with vague curiosity for the next words which fell from the lips of the lady in front. It was the younger one who spoke:—
"I heard that he came to the house one night in a beastly state of intoxication, and that the engagement was broken the next morning."
"True, and not true," responded the other. "He went there when he had been drinking, and he told her some plain truths,—what they were you can imagine; Marie's life is public property now. He ended by saying that nothing would induce him to marry her, since he had discovered how false she was to him as well as to her other lovers; that it was only because she had declared her intention of dying if he did not marry her that he had become engaged to her; and after that night he considered himself bound to her no longer. The next day her brother insulted him in the club. There were some words, but the matter was hushed up, and all that society heard afterwards was that Marie Talke married Prince Simonieff and became one of the fastest women ever received at respectable houses;
