now, so I think it is better to make a clean breast of it and
speak out plainly." Again he hesitated, his face growing still
paler, then with a sudden ardent light glowing in his eyes he
said--"Gervase, I love the Princess Ziska!"

Gervase threw away his cigarette and laughed aloud with a wild
hilarity.

"My good boy, I am very sorry for you! Sorry, too, for myself! I
deplore the position in which we are placed with all my heart and
soul. It is unfortunate, but it seems inevitable. You love the
Princess Ziska,--and by all the gods of Egypt and Christendom, so
do I!"




CHAPTER IV.


Denzil recoiled a step backward, then with an impulsive movement
strode close up to him, his face unnaturally flushed and his eyes
glittering with an evil fire.

"You--you love her! What!--in one short hour, you--who have often
boasted to me of having no heart, no eyes for women except as
models for your canvas,--you say now that you love a woman whom
you have never seen before to-night!"

"Stop!" returned Gervase somewhat moodily, "I am not so sure about