[Published By Special Arrangement.]

Otago Witness, Issue 2251, 22 April 1897, Page 41

[Published By Special Arrangement.]

WHOSO FINDETH A WIFE.

By WILLIAM. LE QUEUX,

Author of " The Great War in England in 1897," "Zoraida," " Stolen Souls," "Guilty Bonds," " A Secret Service," &c, <ftc. |_COPYEIGIIT.] Chaptkk XXIII. A Terrible Truth, HE cold, "formal adieu of Ella stunned me. I stood openmouthed, petrified. We had parted on the best of terms, ehe kissing me affectionately, and with wifely solicitude bidding me hasten back; yet in my absence she bad departed, evidently carrying out some pre-arranged plan. Her maid, Roberts, had noticed her packing her trunks three days before ; therefore it was certain that she meant to desert me as soon as opportunity offered. Unacccountable and astounding as was her sudden flight, the discovery I had made among the papers in her escritoire was even more amazing. It held me stupefied and aghast. The paper I held in my hand was the original of the secret convention between England and Germany ; the document that had been stolen from ms, transmitted by telegraph to the Russian Foreign Office, and had nearly caused a terrible and disastrous European war. When I took it from among the letters and saw its neat, formal writing and sprawly signatures, I gazed upon it in blank amazement, unable at first to realise the startling truth. There was, however, no room for doubt. It was the actual document that had been so ingeniously purloined, for it reposed in the escritoire still in its official envelope. The great black seal affixed by the Earl of Warnham had been broken, and both envelope and document had the appearance of having at some time or other been folded small, besides being sadly crumpled. Beueath the shaded light I examined the envelope carefully, and detected a faint carmine streak upon it ; then, placing it to my nostrils, found that it exuded a stale odour of sampaguita. In an instant ths truth was plain. The pink discoloration had been caused by rouge; the scent was Ella's favourite perfume that she always procured from Paris. No doubt the document had been carried for a considerable period in her pocket for safety, and become crumpled, as papers will if carried in a woman's dress. While the envelope might easily have absorbed the odour of that unmistakable perfume from her handkerchief, the streak of rouge puzzled me, tor I had never suspected her of an artificial complexion, nor had I ever seen the hare's foot and carmine among her toilet arlicleE. 11 Tell Roberts I wish to speak to her," I said, turning to Juckes, who bad stood by in silence, puzzled at my strange action of breaking the top of the escritoire. He obeyed, and in a few moments the neat dark-eyed maid entered. " Roberts," I exclaimed, " I want yon to tell me something. Does my wife use any carmine to give artificial colour to her cheeks 1 " "Ob, no, sir," the girl assured me. " Madam is very averse to the use of such things. Once or twice, when she has been going out at night and looked unusually pale, I have suggested a little additional colour, but she has always refused." " Did she have any rouge or anything of that sort in her possession ? " I inquired. " No, sir, I am quite certain she hadn't." "Why are you so confident 1 " "B-.cause only the other day when I was ill v.ith a &ick headache madam urged me to use some colour, as my face was so pale. Visitors were coming, she said, and she didn't ; want me to look like a ghost. I told her that I : had no carmine, and she remarked that she 1 had none, therefore nothing could be done." " When did my wife pack those two trunks she took with her this evening 1 " I " Last Monday, sir," the girl answered, slowly twisting her befrilled apron in her

hands. " She received a note by boy messenger and immediately set about packing tbe boxes." "Did she tell you anything ?" I asked, adding confidentially, " I have reason to believe that my wife has left us, therefore anything you tell me may assist me in traoing her." The girl glanced at me in genuine surprise. " Do you mean, sir, that madam has — has rcn away 1 " she gasped. " No — well, not exactly," I stammered. " But did she tell you anything ? " With eyes downcast tbe girl paused in hesitation, answering at last, " She didn't actually tell me anything." " But what do you know about her intentions?" " Nothing," she answered. Then, after a pause, she added, " Well, to tell you the truth, eir, I had suspicions." " Of what ? 'Do not fear to speak because I am her husband," I said reassuringly. " I may as well know the worst at once." " She used frequently to receive notes from a gentleman. They were brought by a commissionaire, or by a man servant, who waited for the answer. When they came I always knew that on the following day she would be absent many hours." \ " You believe that she met this mysterious individual — eh 1 " I asked huskily. "Yes, for she always told me never to admit to you that she had been long absent. Therefore I had suspicion that she met somebody clandestinely." " Wnat wai hia anrne 1 " " I bave aever been able to ascertain. s Oace I glanced af a note lying on madam's dressirjg table. Is merely announced the writer's intention to attend Lady Pearson's ' At home,' and was signed ' X ' " " Well," I said hoarsely, after a long silence, " what else ? " " Nothing," she replied. " That is all I know, sir." "Has my wife taken her jewels?" I inquired. " No. Siie has left her jewel case unlocked, bus everything is there.- She has even left behind her wedding ring." " Her wedding ring 1 " I echoed, astounded and dismayed. "Then she has discarded me completely." J " Unfortunately it appears so, sir," the girl J observed gravely. I " Very well, Roberts," I said in a broken | voice. " Thank you. You may go." j The girl glanced at me for an inßtant with a •' sad, pitying look, then turned and left, j closing the door noiselessly behind her. | Alone, I sank into the chair utterly broken j down, still holding in my nervous, trembling \ fingers the secret document that threatened ' the peace and welfare of the two moat powerful nations on earth. I had at last discovered tha hideous truth. Ella, the woman whose grace and beauty had held me enmeshed, and whom I had loved with an intensity of passion that was all consuming, was, after all, base and worthless. Although making a hollow ■ pretence to love me she had ease aie aside for this mysterious mau who signed himself with an initial, and who met her secretly almost daily. I had been a olind, devoted idiot, I knew, but until I had watched her in Keußington Gardens I bad never suspected I her of infamy. It soemed, however, that she ! had no sense of shame, and ctrad nonght for' my dishonour or despair. Hor perfidy «yae now revealed in all its painful reality. Ella, whom I had always regarded a» pure, honest, and trnscicg, was a woman of tarnished repute. The t&ct that she had the aocret convention in her possession waa in h self sufficient evidence that the mystery anrroundiug her was deep, and of no ordinary character. Sonia had warned me that sb« «va* my onemy, and this fact was now indeed vividly apparent. How she had become possessed of the. stolen treaty was inexplicable. Full well she knew all the terrible anxiety its loss had caused me, and tbe sensation that its revelation had created throughout Europe. Times without number I had mentioned to her how anxious my chief was to recover the original, so that our enterprising friends in St. Petersburg could bave no tangible proof that it bad actually existed, yet she gave no sign that she j knew anything of it, much less that it actn- j ally reposed in my own drawing room. I did t not fail in those moments of my despair to rocollect that she had been on the most intimate terms with Dudley Ogle, tbe man suspected to have been in the service of the Czar's Government, and as I sat in wonderment it became gradually impressed upon me that through those many months I had been basely tricked, and that Ella herself, charming and ingenuous as she seemed, was ' actually a secret agent of the enemies of England. Several facts that I recollected combined to produce tbie startling belief. Because of | my confidential position as secretary to the Earl of Warnham it was apparent that Ella, with the assistance of my whilom friend Dudley and the encouragement of her mother, had conspired to hold me beneath her spell. She had become my wife not because she j had ever loved me, but because she could i feign affection or hatred with equal impunity, and had some ulterior motive in obtaining my confidence. Her firm resolve | to ascertain the true facts regarding Dudley's | mysterious end showed plainly that if they were not lovers they had acted in complete accord, and what was more likely than that i he, having stolen the secret convention, had j on that msmorable night at the Nook handed , it to her, the instigator of., tbe ingenious theft. Yet an hour or ao later he died from , : some cause that neither doctor nor police i had been able to determine. j To her the tragic occurrence was a mystery, I as to all, and her refusal to render me any I explanation of her suspicious actions was, I j now saw, quite natural. Held beneath the i iron tbraldora of her masters in St. Peters- | burg, she dared not utter one word ; hence I had remained in the outer darknees of doubt and ignorance. However it might be, one thirg was cer- , tain : she had been unexpectedly parted from ! me, either by choice or compulsion. Per- { haps it was that to pose as my wife was no ' longer necessary ; yet if she were actually a \ : spy, was it not onrious that in departing she ' ■ should overlook this document, of which the Ministry at St. Petersburg were so anxious I to possess themselves. { Again, as I sat alone before the cheerless ' grate, I reflected that if she were in the pay

of Russia surely M. Grodekoff, tbe Ambas. sador, would have been acquainted vritb her. Besides, what reason could Renouf have bad In makine such cireful inquiries, or why did^Paul Vorblioudovitoh discredit the truths uttered by SDnia and urge me to marry tbe woman I loved 7 Nevertheless if, as I supposed, my position in the Foreign Offioa had oaused me to be the victim of a clever and deeply-conceived conspiracy, it was scarcely surprising that the Czar's representative should disclaim all kaowledge of the sweet-faced agent, or that Paul had praised her and oast obloquy upon Sonia in order that their plans, whatever they were, should be aohieved. Of tbe aotions of Renouf and his straDga disregard for dotection I could form no satisfactory conclusion. All I knew was that Ella's career had been an unscrupnlous and inglorious one, and that she had caßt me aside as soon as her infamous ends had been attained. The only person who could elucidate ths mystery wai Sonia, the pretty girl who had been denounced by Renouf as h murderess, and who was now in hiding in far-off Russia in some out-o|-the-world place where I could never hope to find her. If she were clever enough to elude the combiner) vigilance of the detective force of Europe, as undoubtedly aha had done, there was but little hope that I could ever run her to earth. The mystery had by Ella's flight been increased rather than explained, for the more I pondered the more deeply rooted became the conviction that she had decamped becauao she had cause to fear Borne strange development that would lead to her exposure and shame. After a time I roused myself, and taking from the broken escritoire the other letters it contained, five in number, examined them, eagerly beneath the light. All ware in the same hand — a heavy masculine one — written evidently with a quilL One by one I read them, finding that they contained appointments whioh fully bore out her maid's suspicions. "My dear Ella," one ran, "to-morrow I shall be on the departure platform at King's Cross station at 11.30. I have good news for you. Come. — X." Another regretted the writer's inability ta keep an appointment as be had been called unexpectedly to Paris and was compelled to leave by the night mail from Charing Ciobb. He, however, promieed to return in three days, and gave her the Grand Hotel *s his address if she found it necessary to telegraph. Strangely enough the letters contained no endearing terms either at thnir commencement or conclusion. Formal aocl brief, they all related to appointments at variouu places in London where two persons might meet unnoticed by the crowd, and all were sigceel by the single mysterious initial. I stood with them my hand -for a long time, pnzzlod and. hesitating, then placing them carefully in my pnckefc, together with the aecrat drcument I badaq unexpectedly unearthed , I crammed, on my hat and hastily drove to Pont street. The hou6o was in darkneaa save for a light in the basement, and ia aaawer to my summoua, after a lapse at somp miautoe, a tall, gaunt, womau in rusty black appeared in the area below. I was surprised at being thus met by a. stranger, bub i;,qaked for Mr« Laing. " Mrs Laing am't at 'cine, sir," answered the woman, looking up and speaking with a ■strong Cockney iwang. " Not at homa ? " I exclaimed surprised. " Where ia she ? " " She's gone abroad somewhere*, but I don'fc avow where," tbe woman außwered. " She'*.<old k'l her valuables, disoharged the aerv.*nsß. and left me 'are as uasekeeper. •' When did she go 1 " I asked. " This morning. I answered «» advertisement iv she Chronicle yesterday, und entered on my duties 'ore Jo-day. Quick, ain't it ?"" The rapidity of hef engfit/emenfi I was compelled to adroit, bus proceeded to mak« further inquiry whether Mrs Laing'a daughter had been th«rr. " No, sir. Nu one's been 'ere tc-day, exoept a foreign -looking gentleman who asked if madam had left, and when I «aid that she «ad he went away quite satisfied." " What kind of man was he ? " "Tflll and thin, with a longiuh dark bear.l." The description did not correspond with anyone of my acquaintance ; therefore, after some further questions regarding Mrs Laing's mysterious departure, I was compelled to wish the worthy woman good evening. Sha knew nothing of Mrs Laing's movements, not even the name of the texmlnns to which she had driven, such pains had E lad mother taken to conceal the direction in which sha intended to travel. Some secret undoubtedly existed between mother and daughter ; its nature held me perplexed and bewildersd. Chapter XXIV. Strictly Confidential. The early morning was dry, frosty, butstarless. The clock of that fashionable temple of Hymen, St. George's, Hanover square, was slowly chiming 3 as I alighted from a cab at the corner of Mount sircet, and walkingalong Berkeley square, I ascended the steps of the Earl of Warnnam'fl great mansion, and rang its ponderous bell. The place was severe and gloomy enoaga by day, but in the silence and darkness of the night its exterior presented a forbidding, almost ghostly, appearance. It was an unusual hour for a call, but knowing that a porter was on duty always and that despatches frequently arrived during the night, I had no hesitation in seeking an interview. In a few moments there was a grating sound of bolts drawn back, a clanking o£ chains, and the heavy door was slowly opened by a sleepy man a who, with a word of recognition, at once admitted me. Walking across the great square hall warmed by a hugeroar« ing fire, I passed down the passage to the Earl's study and rapped at the door, receiving an impatient permission to enter. The Minister for Foreign Affairs waa sit« ting at bis table where I had left him, witb an empty teacup at his side, resting his pale weary brow upon his hand and writing despatches rapidly with hia scratchy quill. His fire was nearly out, the pair of candles ia their heavy, old-fashioned silver candlestick* that stood upon his writing table bad burned down almoßt to their socketß, and the strong smell of burnt paper that pervaded the boofe

s

lined den showed that with his innate are constantly hurrying over the face of cautiousness he had destroyed documents Europe as fasb as the fastest exoresses can that he did not desire should be seen by other carry them, passing through the frontier eyes. stations freed from tbe troublesome oonThe world-renowned gtateiman raised his comitant of ordinary travelling, the examinahead as I entered, gave vent to a low grunt tion of luggage ; known on all the great of dissatisfaction, and continued writicg at trunk lines from Paris to Constantinople and topmost speed. I saw I was unwelcome ; but from Rome to St.. Petersburg ; gometime3 Well acquainted with his mannerisms and I bearing epoch-making documents, sometimes eccentricities, walked to. the fire, added more ! a^ lady's hat of latest mode, or a parcel of fuel, and waited in patience until he had foreign delicacies, but always on the alert, finished. ' and generally Bleeping on a layer of stiff 11 Well 1 " he snarled, casting down his pen despatches and bulky " notes." Impatiently, and turning upon me at last. At last, having made np the bag, I rose "1 thought yon, of all men, were aware that slowly and faced my chief. I do not deeire interruption when at "Well," he exclaimed, raising his keen work." eyes from the document I had brought him, " I should not have ventured to come at and regarding me with that stony, spbinxthis hour," I said, "were it not that the news like expression he assumed when resolved I bring is of extreme importance." upon cross-questioning, " how did you obtain He sighed, as was his habit when expect- possession of this 1 " log further complications. " I found it." I answered. " What is its natnre ?" he asked coldly, " Found it 1 " he growled, with a cynical leaning back in bis chair. " Abandon pre- curl of the lip. " I suppose you have some liminariee, please, and come to the point. lame story — that yon picked it up in the What is it?" street, or something— eh ?" he exclaimed " I have recovered the original of onr testily. secret convention with Germany," I "No," I replied hoarsely, "mine is no answered in as quiet a tone as I could lame story, although a wretched one. The assume. : discovery has unnerved and bewildered me ; "Yon have 1" he cried excitedly, starting its" ap. " You are quite right to seek me at once " I have no desire to know how its dis—quite right. Where did you obtain it 2" he oovery affected you mentally," he interrupted inquired. with impatient sarcasm. "I asked where Slowly I drew forth the preciouß document you found it," he observed coldly, from my pocket and handed it to him, still " I found it in my own house," I answered, in the envelope that bore my own mark, with "Then you mean to tell me that it has the remains of his broken seal. He took it been in your possession the whole time. The eagerly and bent to the candles to examine thing's impossible," be cried angrily. " Beit more closely. A few seconds sufficed to member the dummy palmed off upon me, and reassure him that the document was the the fact that an exact copy was transmitted genuine one. to Petersburg." ; "It is fortunate that this has returned into " No ; it has not been ia my possession," I our possession," he observed, his thin blue answered, leaning against my writing chair lips quivering slightly. " I feared that it had for support. " I—lI — I found it among my wife's already passed beyond our reach, and that one possessions." day or other in the near future our policy must " Your wife 1 " he gasped, agitated. He be narrowed by the knowledge that it was pre- bad turned ghastly pale at mention of served in the archives of the Foreign Office her name, and trembling with agitation at Petersburg, and could be used as a pre- swayed forward. teßce for a declaration of war by Russia and A moment later, however, he recovered his France. Now, however, that the original is self-possession, clutched at the corner of his .again in our possession we can disclaim all table, and regarding me sharply, asked, copies and give assurances that no secret " What do you suspect ?" (Understanding exists between us and Berlin. " I scarce know what to suspect," I .The only fact that at present lends colour to answered gravely, striving to remain calm, the assertion of the Boulevard journals is the but remembering at that instant the curious ill-timed bestowal of the Iron Cross upon effect produced upon the Foreign Minister -.Count Landsfeldt. Such an action was when he had first seen Ella dancing at the (characteristic of their hot-beaded Emperor." Embassy ball. My declaration that I had ,Then, after a second's reflection, he added, found this official bond of nations in her " Just sit down, Deedee, and write to Sir possession had produced a similar disquietPhilip Emden at Berlin, asking him to obtain ing result which puzzled me. audience immediately of the K*iser, point " But surely she can have had no hand in out the harmful impression this decoration the affair," he cried. " She certainly did not has occasioned, and get his Majesty to exhibit strike me as an adventuress or an agsnt of iris marked displeasure towards Landsfeldt the Czar's secret service." 1n some form or other. That will remove any "Itis a problem that I cannot solve," I suspicion that the convention is actually an exclaimed slowly, watching the strange accomplished fact. Beside?, you may hint hsggard look upon biß usually imperturbable also that it may be well for the relations features. " After leaving you this evening I between the Kaieer and Sir Philip to appear went home only to find a letter of farewell ■lightly strained, and that this fact should from her, and " lie communicated indirectly to the press. " She has fled then ? " he exclaimed with Sit down and write at once ; it must b8 sent quick suspicion. under flying seal." " Yes. Her flight was evidently preI obeyed, and commenced writing a formal arranged, and curiously enough her mother, despatch, while, in answer to the electric who lives in Pont street, has discharged her bell rung by his lordship, the sleepy night servants, disposed of a good deal of her proporter appeared. perty, and also departed." " Caiv«t," exclaimed the Minister, •• tele- " Gone together, no doubt," the Earl cbfchone to the Foreign Offica and say that I served, frowning reflectively, ■want a messenger to call here and proceed to " But is it not very strange that she should Berlin by the morning mail." have left the stolen CDnvention behind ? " Yes, m'iord," answered the man, bowing Surely if my wife were actually a Russian and closing the door. agent she would never have been guilty of While I wrote, the Earl perused the docu- such indiscretion," I said, ment the loss of which had r u-^ed the "The mystery is inexplicable, Dsedes," he Cabinets of Europe so much ap r .-;hension, declared with a heavy look, half of pain, half .and taking hia magnifying glass he examined of bewilderment. "Absolutely inexplicthe portions of the seal still remaining. Then able." carefully unlocking one of the small private This aged man, to whose firmness, clever drawers in the top of the great writing table, statesmanship, and calm foresight England he took therefrom some object, and gazed owed her placa as foremost among the upon it long and earnestly. With a heavy powers, was trembling with an excitement he sigh he again replaced it, and slowly locked strove in vain to suppress. la manner that the drawer. When I had finished and placed surprised me, his cold cynical !ace relaxed, Abe instructions to Sir Philip Emden before and placing his thiD, bony hand upon my him, he took up his quill, corrected my letter, shoulder with fatherly tenderness, her here and there adding an emphatic word or Majesty's most trusted Minister urged me to two, and then appended his signature, confide in him all my suspicions and my ■ Obtaining one of the bags used for the trans- fears. mission of single despatches, I deposited it " Yon have, I believe, after all, been cruelly sealed it, and placed upon it one of wronged, Deedes," he added ia a low, harsh jfchose labels with a cross drawn upon its face, tone.' "I sympathise with you because I - the signification of that mark being that it myself once felt the loss of a wife deeply, ii never to b8 lost sight of by the messenger, and I know what feelings must be yours now .There are two kinds of bags sent out and re- that you suspect the woman you have trusted . ceived by the Foreign Office — one with this and loved to have been guilty of base crofls-marked label, and thß other without it. treachery and espionage. She, or someone in .The latter are generally larger and less im- association with her, has besmirched Engportanf, and may be placed with the land's hononr, and brought us to the very messenger's luggage. It is no pleasant life verge of a terrible national disaster. Proour messengers lead, liable as they are to be videntially this was averted ; by what means summoned at an hour's notice to " proceed at we have not yet ascertained, although our once " to anywhere, from Brussels to Tehe- diplomatic agants at the Court of the Czar I can. Armed with a " laissez-oasser " tbev are striving day and nieht to ascertain; yet 1

the fact remains that we were victimised by some daring secret agent who sacrificed everything in order to accomplish the masterstroke of espionage. I can but re-echo the thanks to Heaven uttered by my gracious Sovereign when she received news that war had been averted, nevertheless it is my duty — nay, it is yours, Deedes — to strive on without resting in order that this mystery may be satisfactorily unravelled."

For a moment we were silent. Then in a voice that I felt painfully conscious was broken by grief and emotion I related to him the whole of the wretched ntory of my marriage, my suspicions, the discovery of Ella in KensiDgton Garden*, how I had taxed her with flirtation acd frivolity, our peacemaking, and her sudden and unexoeoted flight.

He heard me through to the end with bent head, sighing now and then sympathetically. Then he slowly asked :

" Did you ever refer to those earlier incident", such as the death of that young man Ogle"? Remember, whatever you tell me I shall regard as strictly confidential."

" I seldom mentioned it, as she desired me not to do so."

" When yon referred to it what was her attitude? " he inquired in a pained tone, the furrows on his high white brow deep and clearly defined.

" She declared always that he had been murdered, and vowed to detect the author 1 of the crime."

"Are you, in your own mind, convinced that there was anythicg really mysterious regarding her actions; or were they only everyday facts distorted by jealousy ? " he asked gravely.

" There is, I believe, some deep mystery regarding her past," I auswered".

He knit his grey shaggy brows, and started perceptibly.

" Her past 1 " he echoed. " Were you aware of any — cr — unpleasant fact prior to marriage ? " he inquired quickly.

" Yes. She promised to explain everything ere long ; therefore, loving her devotfidly as I did, I resolved to make her my wife and await in patience her explanation."

" Love 1 " he cried cynically. " She did not love you. She only married yon, it seems, to accomplish her own base and mysterious ends." Then pacing the room from end to end, he added, "The more I reflect, the more apparent dees it become that Ella Laing meant, by becoming your" wife, to accomplish some great coup, but, prevented by some unforseen circumstance, she has been compelled to fly, and in her haste overlooked this incriminating paper."

This, too, was my own opinion, and taking from my pocket the whole of the letters that were Id the escritoire, I placed them before him.

"They are from" your wife's mysterious lover," he observed, when a few moments ]ater he had digested them. "Who he is there is no evidence to show. You suspect him, of course, to be the man Bhe met in Kensington Gardens 1 "

I nodded

A sigh escaped me.

" Wall," he went on, " leave them with me. A caligraphic expert may possibly find some due to the identity of their writer."

Afterwards he took up the broken envelope that bad contained the treaty, carefully reexamining its edges by the aid of his large magnifying glass.

"There is another curious fact that we must not overlook," he observed slowly. " While the seal has been broken, this envelope has also passed through a 'cabinet noir.' See, this edge bears unmistakable traces after wear in the pocket," and he handed it to me, together with his glass.

The suggestion was startling, and one that I had entirely overlooked. The "cabinet noir" is a, term well understood in diplomacy, but unfamiliar, perhaps, to the general public. Official documents of no great importance are often sent by post, and in most European c juatries this has led to] the establishment of a " cabinet noir," in which the envelope is opened and its contents examined. The mode of procedure is interesting. The letter to be opened is first shaken well in such a way that the enclosure falls to one side oE the envelope, leaving a space of about a quarter of an iach between it and the outer edge. This edge is then placed under an excremey sharp knife worked like a guillotine, care being taken to put it carefully at right angles to the kaife, which is then brought down and cuts off a slip about oue-huudredth part of an inch wide. The envelope is now open, and the enclosure is extracted by a pair of pincers made for the purpose. After examination it is replaced, and the ticklish job of removing all traca of the opening has to be done. This is very ingenions. There are different pots of paper pulp mixed with a little gum, and each tinted a different colour to suit the various shades of paper that aro operated upon. A very fine camel-hair brush is dipped into the pot containiag the proper tint, and is then run carefully along the edges which % have been cut, open. They are then closed and left undar a press for an hour or so, and after being smoothed with a flit stael instrument, it would take a very clever expert to notice that the envelope has passed through the "cabinet uoir."

I saw, however, in thin worn envelope the two edges were coming ap^rt, and at once admitted the truth of the Earl's assertions. He was intensely Ehrewd ; scarcely any minute detail escansd him.

" Well," he ecid reflectively at laot, " there is but one person from whom W9 may ascertain the truth." •'"Who?" "Ycur wife."

"Bui. she has disappeared."

"We must trace her. She must not escape us," he criad fiercely with set teeth. "Sne has wroEged yon and acted in collusion with a man who has betrayed his country and met Tvilh a tragic end, even if she herself did not actually sell the copy of the secret convention to our enemies, which appears to me more than likely."

" What causes you to believe this 1 " I inquired, surprised at his sudden assertion. "I have a reason," he answered quickly with an air of mystery. The cold manner of the expert diplomatist had again settled upon him. "If it is as I expect I will show her no mercy, for it is upon me, as Foreign Minister of her Majesty, that opprobrium has fallen." " But she is still my wife." I observed, for

even at that moment when I had discovered her false and base I had not ceased to regard her with a passionate affection. " Wife I " he snarled angrily. " You would have been a thousand times better dead than married to such as she." Then he added : " Remain here. lam going to the telephone to apprise Scotland Yard of her flight . She only left to-night after the mails were gone, therefore if we have the ports watched we may yet find her." And ho left me, his quiok footsteps echoing down the long corridor. The moment he had gone I went, to hia table. Some sudden curiosity prompted me to endeavour to ascertain what he had been gez\ng upon so intently while my back had been turaed in penning the instructions to Sir Philip Emden. Qaickly I took his keys, and unlocking the tiny drawer, opened it. ' Inside there reposed a cabinet portrait of my wife.

Amaz-.d to find this p'cture in the possession of my chief I took it in my hands and stood agape. Its pose was unfamiliar, but the reason I bad never before seen a copy of it was instantly made plain. It bore the name of a well-known St. Petersburg photographer. , Ella had lied to me whan she had denied ever having been in Rassia.

(To he continued.)