Cray's Folly. Our foreign servants--there are five of them altogether--
got us a dreadfully bad name. Then, little by little, a sort of cloud
seemed to settle on everything. The Colonel made two visits abroad, I
don't know exactly where he went, but on his return from the first
visit Madame de Staemer changed."

"Changed?--in what way?"

"I am afraid it would be hopeless to try to make you understand, Mr.
Knox, but in some subtle way she changed. Underneath all her vivacity
she is a tragic woman, and--oh, how can I explain?" Val Beverley made a
little gesture of despair.

"Perhaps you mean," I suggested, "that she seemed to become even less
happy than before?"

"Yes," she replied, looking at me eagerly. "Has Colonel Menendez told
you anything to account for it?"

"Nothing," I said, "He has left us strangely in the dark. But you say
he went abroad on a second and more recent occasion?"

"Yes, not much more than a month ago. And after that, somehow or other,
matters seemed to come to a head. I confess I became horribly
frightened, but to have left would have seemed like desertion, and
Madame de Staemer has been so good to me."

"Did you actually witness any of the episodes which took place about a
month ago?"