The first check experienced by Count Mellikoff in the fulfilment of his well-laid plans, was one of which he took but slight account.

In calling into action the machinery of the law, and thereby obtaining the warrant for Miss Hildreth's arrest, he overlooked one point. He had designedly delayed this summary action until such a moment, when knowing the Newbolds and Mr. Tremain to be well out of his way, he could proceed without apprehension of interference on their part.

He was quite well aware that to act against their combined forces would be a far more serious undertaking than to attack Miss Hildreth alone and unbefriended. But could he once accomplish her arrest, he believed that here in America, as in Russia, he had only to demand an official inquiry, as a matter of form, and it would at once be granted; at which inquiry, trusting to the strength of his evidence, he foresaw her immediate committal for trial, and expected by the time the beau monde were returning to New York, and before a cabal could be raised in Miss Hildreth's behalf, to be already on his way to Petersburg with his prisoner, about whose subsequent fate, when once she was handed over to the Imperial Chancellerie, he had no need to concern himself.

Then he would be free to seek Olga, and, laying his love and his life at her feet, demand that reward for the sake of which she had persuaded him to undertake this mission. Patouchki also would be convinced of his loyalty by this last signal service in the Emperor's behalf; and even the Tsar himself might bestow a further distinction upon him; one ribbon more, perhaps, to swell the number of those upon which his beautiful Olga set such store.

And, indeed, so far fortune had favoured him and his plans; up to a certain time events marched according as he directed. The warrant was obtained; Miss Hildreth was arrested; and, save John Mainwaring, none of her special friends were in town to stand by her or act in her defence. On Mainwaring, Count Mellikoff bestowed not a thought; he had not even seen him in the crowd of transient guests at the Folly, and his name was suggestive of nothing.

The matter of an immediate official inquiry, however, was not so easily managed. Count Mellikoff found countless obstacles to overcome, raised by that very organ, the law, which so far he had played upon to his own purpose. Innumerable technicalities and difficulties were for ever cropping up, resulting in unheard-of delays. Even Mellikoff's patience gave way at last, and he anathematised the entire Western continent, its institutions and customs, in language more forcible than polite. Despite of his choler, however, Vladimir Mellikoff was obliged to swallow his wrath, and bear with what patience he could muster, that most difficult of all trials—enforced inaction.

Meantime he heard again from Patouchki, and the tone of his letter was such as to create a fever of anxiety and unrest, that threatened to prostrate him mentally and physically. From Olga Naundorff he received neither word nor sign.

And so the long, hot days came and went, and by none of the waiting actors in that life-drama were they ever forgotten in the years that followed.

To Patricia, Philip, Esther, Dick Darling, Vladimir Mellikoff, and Rosalie James, each sunrise brought but an increasing weight of torturing anxiety; each nightfall was fraught with an additional burden of suspense.

Within the week after his return, Mr. Tremain had another interview with Miss Hildreth. He found her in the same half flippant, half rebellious mood that had so angered him at their last meeting. He stayed with her for more than an hour, during which she remained as adamant to all his arguments, entreaties, prayers. He left her at last in anger, and with hot words of passion as his farewell.

"You force me to draw my own conclusions," he said. "It would be more reasonable if you would give me ever so foolish a motive as your reason for denying the truth of the assertion contained in this letter." He struck John Mainwaring's offending epistle as he spoke. "Once more, Patricia, will you, or will you not, acknowledge this affirmation as true?"

She had grown very pale under the lash of his ill-concealed anger; but she gave no other sign either of embarrassment or yielding, and when she answered she looked him straight in the eyes, and spoke without a falter in her clear musical voice:

"I have nothing to say, Philip. Mr. Mainwaring is the best person for you to apply to for confirmation, since he has made the statement."

"And that is all you have to tell me—all you will tell me?" he asked, his voice reflecting the doubt and pain of his mind. "At least, Patricia, since I know on what grounds Count Mellikoff will seek to justify your arrest, you might confide the truth to me. Are you, or are you not——"

"My dear Philip," she broke in hastily, the colour rushing to her face in a sudden overwhelming torrent, "cannot you see what I am?—is not that enough? Why should you try to solve Vladimir Mellikoff's motives? It is he who has brought this charge against me, let him prove its validity."

"And Mainwaring?" he asked, slowly, looking at her keenly.

"Mr. Mainwaring shall answer to me for his officiousness," she replied, quietly.

"And this is all you have to say, Patricia? This is all you will tell me?"

"Yes, that is all I have to say," she answered.

And at her reply he turned from her abruptly and left her; nor did he again seek an interview with her during the few days that remained before her quasi-trial.

Philip could not but contrast the emotions with which he had sought this meeting, with those which overwhelmed him at its close. John Mainwaring's letter had apparently opened the way to a satisfactory unravelling of the tangled skein, and it was with a full belief in the solution thus presented, that he had gone to Patricia, and begged for a more explicit explanation than that suggested in Mainwaring's statement. He believed also, that at last he had fathomed Mdlle. Lamien's part in the transaction, and the secret of her power over him; he had already accused her of being Count Mellikoff's accomplice, and now he thought he saw how it was that all unconsciously she played advantageously into his hands.

It needed but a word from Patricia to reduce his theory to reality; but this word Miss Hildreth declined to pronounce, nor could he force from her any admission upon which he could establish his hypothesis. The only outcome of his interview with her was a return to the old uncertainty and doubt that had made his life a torture for so many days.

To the great surprise of every one, Mr. Tremain did not appear as Miss Hildreth's solicitor, nor, indeed, take any active part in her behalf. It was John Mainwaring who was selected by Patricia as her adviser, and to John Mainwaring she opened her whole heart; holding nothing back, and in no way excusing or exonerating herself for the part she had played in the plot, that bid fair to develop all the characteristics of tragedy before its termination. She bound the young lawyer by the most solemn of promises not to reveal certain portions of her confession, although the consequences of his secrecy might be the worst possible for her. And Mainwaring, being a man of quick sympathies and ardent chivalry, had, under the spell of her beauty and her emotion, passed his word of honour to use only such particulars of her statement, in her support, as she should designate.

"I think you are mistaken," he had said, after urging a greater latitude upon her, "I cannot say how far your reticence may not tell against you. I wish you would be quite frank with me, Miss Hildreth, or rather let me be on your behalf. I don't believe you half realise the gravity of your position, or how terrible the result may be for you should I fail to overthrow the validity of the warrant. You see a certain amount of complicity we must acknowledge, since we cannot set up an alibi, and that will go just so much against you if I may not show the context. Won't you reconsider, Miss Hildreth, or let me take another opinion upon the matter?"

"No," she answered with decision, "I cannot reconsider. It is impossible. Only think in what a position it would place him were I to allow you to proclaim my miserable attitude. No, be the consequences what they may, I have brought sorrow and shame enough upon Philip Tremain through my influence, I will not disgrace him publicly by having my weakness dragged out to the light of day. You have given me your word, Mr. Mainwaring. I have no fear of your breaking it, and I do not care for any second opinion. I must stand or fall by the line of argument we have marked out between us."

And from this decision he could not move her.

After he left her, Miss Hildreth sat for a long time quite still and motionless. The slow heavy tears gathered in her eyes and fell down her cheeks unnoticed and unchecked; the sobs, deep weary sobs, burst now and then from her brave heart; and at last, as the evening shadows lengthened into night, and all about her became wrapt in soft impalpable darkness, she fell upon her knees, bowing her proud head to the ground, and praying as she had never prayed before; entreating forgiveness for her wilful pride, her cruel selfishness, her obdurate egotism, through which, not she only had been brought to so terrible an alternative, but he whom she loved bid fair to be dragged down with her in her fall.

"No, no, no," she cried aloud, clasping her hands together and throwing them outward in a passionate gesture of entreaty, "I will never give in. I will never confess the shameful part I have taken in this deception. I will never, my poor Philip, by word or sign permit one slight or sneer to fall on you through me. If I have failed in everything else, I will not fail in this. At least, I have courage and endurance left, I am not afraid but that they will stand me in good stead; and should the very worst consequences fall upon me, I deserve them all. Yes, every individual item, in that horrible possibility of which he spoke, is not too much for me to bear in punishment. Oh, Philip, Philip, to think I should be the one to bring the disgrace upon you of biting scorn, and evil laughter, and venomous tongues! I, who love you, and yet whose love can point to no higher achievement than this!"