suspicions. Didn't I expound this last evening?"

"You did--also much more; but I've thought over it almost the whole
night, and I simply must get this miserable letter off my mind. Perhaps
Mrs. Spencer has forestalled me with the Ambassador and has given him
such a tale as will insure my being shown the door; nevertheless I'll
risk it."

"Why don't you get in communication with your friend Madame Durrand,"
Harleston suggested "and have her, if she hasn't done so already,
identify you to the Marquis?"

"I shall, if the Marquis is sceptical. I'll admit that I'm pitiably
foolish, but I don't want Mrs. Durrand to know how I've bungled her
matter until the bungle is corrected."

"I can quite understand," said Harleston gently.

"Oh, I know you are right," she murmured, "yet I'm afraid to go alone."

"Take some other friend with you; some well-known man who can vouch for
your identity."

"I know no one in Washington except the friends at the Shoreham, and
they are not residents here."

"Are you acquainted with any prominent woman?"

"No! I've lived in Europe for years--and while I have met over there
women from Washington it's been only casually. They won't recollect me,