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.
"For your own sake," she answered.

"It is necessary to find you a husband, is it not, and nowadays one does not find them easily when there is no DOT." Jeanne felt her cheeks burning.
"I am to be married, then," she said slowly, "by some one who thinks I have a great deal of money, and who afterwards will be able to turn round and reproach me for having deceived him." The Princess laughed.
"Afterwards," she said, "the man will not be too anxious to let the world know that he has been made a fool of.

If you play your cards properly, the afterwards will come out all right." Jeanne rose slowly to her feet.
"I do not think," she said, "that you have quite understood me.