"He is one of the few who know also the real facts about my father--that he is no longer a power among the Polish Irreconcilables. And by the influence of his father, the Count von Felsen, a pardon for my father can be obtained, and our family estates can be restored; not indeed to him, but to--to my husband if that husband should be Hugo von Felsen."
There was a long pause. "There is the Jewess," I said then.
"It is what you have told me about that which baffles me," she replied with a gesture of bewilderment.
"How do you know that what he has told you is true?"
"Do you think he is a man to seek as his wife a girl who has no fortune? And I have none at present. Why then does he press this? Just before this attempt to arrest me, he urged me vehemently to marry him at once and secretly. I would not; I could not, I despise him so"; and she shuddered. "I used the supposed attentions of the Prince to put him off, and now you see the screw has been turned."
"The scoundrel," I muttered.
"Hard words will not solve my dilemma, my friend. I wish they would!" and she sighed heavily. "It is my turn to-day, to-morrow it will be Chalice's, and then my father's. I see only the one way out; but then there is this Jewess."
I sat thinking hard. "If there were a way out you would take it?"
Her face lighted eagerly for a second, and then fell again. "Of course; but there is none."
"I am not so sure of that. Will you let me try to find one?"