In a moment she continued, sobbing while she spoke:-- "But--oh! if by any mischance Max should fall; if by treachery or accident--oh, Sir Karl, my heart is breaking.

Do not let Max fight." These words were from her woman's heart.

"His station will excuse him, but if the affair has gone too far for him to withdraw, tell him to--to leave Burgundy, to run away, to--" "Yolanda, what are you saying ?" I asked.

"Would you not rather see him dead than a coward ?" "No, no, Sir Karl," she cried, wrought almost to a frenzy by her grief and fear.

"No, no, anything but dead." "Listen to reason, Yolanda," I answered.