"According to the first 'authentic' declaration, the nameless count is the chief of a band of robbers, who ply their nefarious trade in a foreign land.

The lady is his mistress.

She fell once into the hands of justice, in Germany, and was branded as a criminal on her forehead.

That accounts for the heavy veil she always wears--" "Oh, that is quite too horribly romantic, Herr Doctor!" interrupted the baroness.

"We cannot accept that version.