WHITEWASH
dentally Valdeck told I don't know what ridiculous scandal about Victoria Claudel, who, you know, happened to recognize him for what he was—a burglar. He wanted to gain time, and in this ingenious way made a most excellent spy of the innocent Philippa. Of course you know the extraordinary dénouement—Valdeck's suicide, the murder of the maid and Madame Lamion's final incarceration "à Charenton."
"When Philippa found out the real state of affairs, she was wild that she should have helped to hurt her friend's character, for, girl-like, she had talked, and the whole set was quite agog over it. She made the fullest possible reparation; insisted on seeing the people to whom she had repeated the slander, and was most contrite and humble. But Victoria Claudel never would forgive her, and Morton Conway, whom we all thought engaged to Philippa, has quite dropped away. People say Victoria took him deliberately—they are inseparable now.
"'So that's the Miss Ford,' said the marchioness again. 'I don't wonder that they make such
