her note that night and with others--the whereabouts of which I
learned from the maid and which I indirectly purchased from the
holders--I took all these to a notorious money-lender and made a deal
with him. He was to take the notes and press the lady for payment, of
course keeping my name out of it. It is obvious that, trying as I was
to w in her confidence, I could not go myself and hold these
obligations over her head. That same day the money-lender paid the
lady a call. He paid her a good many other calls, harassing her,
threatening legal action and driving her until she was almost to a
state of nervous collapse. Well-placed sympathies soon made her talk
and she burst out pettishly that she was in debt and that most of her
acquaintances were in debt--nothing unusual in that set.

This was an opportune chance to be of material benefit to the lady.
Seriously we talked over her affairs. I found them pretty well
entangled. We discussed the young Grand Duke. I gradually persuaded
her that there was no hope of a legitimate marriage with the house of
Mecklenburg-Schwerein, but because of her association with the young
Grand Duke and the fact that she had been betrothed to him, it was
only right that the Duchy provide her with some means of assistance.
The ice was perilously thin, for the lady is a high-spirited woman of
ideals and I had to be careful to word my language so that it would
not appear as though she were blackmailing. In justice to her, I
believe that if she had taken that view of it she would have dropped
the entire matter, and retired from society for the season rather than
go through with my plan. Finally I said:

" Have you any means by which you could compel the ducal house to make
adequate acknowledgments and redresses to you?"