"If this be true," she said, "how is it that every one speaks of me as being a great heiress?"
The Princess glanced at her with a contemptuous smile.
"You do not suppose," she said, "that I have found it necessary to take the whole world into my confidence."
"You mean," Jeanne said, "that people don't know that I am not a great heiress?"
"Certainly not," the Princess replied, "or we should scarcely be here."
"The Count de Brensault?" Jeanne asked.
"He does not know, of course," the Princess answered. "He is a rich man. He can afford quite well to marry a girl without a DOT."
Jeanne's head fell slowly between her hands. The suddenness of this blow had staggered her. It was not the loss of her fortune so much which affected her as the other contingencies with which she was surrounded. She tried to think, and the more she thought the more involved it all seemed. She looked up at last.
"If my fortune is really gone," she said, "why do you let people talk about it, and write about me in the papers as though I were still so rich?"
The Princess shrugged her shoulders.