last, he fights the man who gave him birth! I wanted to tell John Grier
all, but I did not because I knew it would spoil his life and my boy's
life. It was nothing to me whether I lived or died. But I could not
bear Carnac should know. He was too noble to have his life spoiled."

Barode Barouche drew himself together. Here was a deep, significant
problem, a situation that needed more expert handling than he had ever
shown. As he stood by the table, the dim light throwing haggard
reflections on her face, he had a feeling that she was more than normal.
He saw her greater than he had ever imagined her. Something in him
revolted at a war between his own son and himself. Also, he wanted to
tell her of the danger in which Carnac was--how Luzanne had come, and was
hidden away in the outskirts of the city, waiting for the moment when the
man who rejected her should be sacrificed.

Now that Barouche was face to face with Alma Grier, however, he felt the
appalling nature of his task. In all the years he had taken no chance to
pay tribute to the woman who, in a real sense, had been his mistress of
body and mind for one short term of life, and who once, and once only,
had yielded to him. They were both advanced in years, and Life and Time
had taken toll. She was haggard, yet beautiful in a wan way. He did not
believe the vanished years had placed between them an impassable barrier.

He put his chances to the test at last.

"Yes, I know--I understand. You remained silent because your nature was
too generous to injure anyone. Down at the bottom of his heart,
cantankerous, tyrannical as he was, John Grier loved you, and I loved you
also."