would she have come back here to seek it? You have the paper between you, and if there was law in Prussia, I would make you give it up but I will take uncommonly good care, doctor, to denounce you in England as a swindler.'

To say that Mrs. Arnaud was taken by surprise by her mother's flank movement is to say nothing. She had had so many surprises in this world that another was nothing to her. I am sorry to say about my very dear friend that she was pretending to weep behind her handkerchief, while she was choking with laughter, about the way in which her mother had turned the enemies' flank. She thought that the conclusion was the best.

'Gentlemen,' she

ing her handkerchief.

said, rising and whisk

I am an old

I am an old woman,

near my grave. You have been tempted,

doubtless, as many of us have, and you have yielded to temptation. I am a woman of business. You have the document I require

here; I am rich, and I will give you a thousand sovereigns for it.'

And so she marched off to bed. The Englishman and the Prussian were no match for the old Frenchwoman. She had entirely beaten them, and the doctor only desired to get her out of the house. There was no more talk of arrest; and when Mrs. Arnaud was putting her mother to bed, she mildly remonstrated with her.

'Mamma, you went too far.'

'You can never do that, my dear. I have played the low insular game of cribbage, and if you peg too far you may be detected and have to go back; but you will find, if you raise a sufficient argument, that your

adversary in the next hand will not play well, and so you gain in any way.'

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But, mamma, were you right in saying those dreadful things about them? '

'My dear, they have not got the paper. Besides, even if they had, I offered them a thousand pounds for it, and they neither of them had presence of mind to refuse. That in England would be twenty years' penal servitude for either of them. Their tongues are tied.

'I wonder where the paper is,' said Mrs. Arnaud.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ONE SMALL FLAME GOES OUT.

Ir is very painful for the present writer to speak of the fearful disasters which came down so suddenly on the most venerated head of Lord Festiniog. Of course, our moral readers will quarrel with us at once when we say that he was a good old fellow, and that there really was no harm in him. He wanted to possess the property, and he believed in the validity of a certain document, which was not worth the paper on which it was written.

He let the two women, Mrs. Arnaud and Madame Mantalent, go to St. Goar to see if

they could recover it. That was extremely wrong. They made an utter failure, which served him right. Still, Nemesis punished. him somewhat heavily; for the woman, Carlina, had taken the paper straight to Lord Rhyader, and before she had been with him half an hour, George Drummond had arrived from Marseilles.

Lord Rhyader-who was now in the House was among pyramids of blue books. He was thinking about making a speech, which has never been made. He heard a rustle in his study, and swore under his breath. Seeing that it was only his valet, he kept his temper.

An Italian woman wishes to see your lordship,' said the valet.

Am I an organ-grinder man?' said

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Lord Rhyader, that you should talk to me of an Italian woman?'