All question of Elizabeth's leaving Hatty's room to join the table d'hôte being disposed of, a masterly inactivity as regarded Melchior seemed the wisest course to pursue. She meditated more than once, in the course of that week, writing to him; but the difficulty of composing such a letter as, without offending, should silence him, withheld her. The portrait, Alaric told her, would in a couple more sittings be complete, as far as Melchior was concerned. His presence, which grated on the American more than ever now, could be dispensed with, for some finishing touches to the dress. Sore troubled at heart for his sister, whose true condition he now for the first time realized, he felt ill disposed to listen to this Israelite's narration of his exploits on the Bourse, his successes with fair ladies, and the advances that were made to him on all sides.
"Take my word for it, Mr. Baring, every woman has her price," he said one day.
"I quite agree with you. Only, fortunately, it is often one that is not to be paid in gold," was the reply.
It must not be supposed that this man, who, thanks to his acute brain, and his want of principle, combined with an extraordinary run of "luck," had generally succeeded in obtaining most things for which he had striven, would sit down patiently under the reverse with which Miss Baring's illness threatened the plot that had relieved the monotony of gambling for him in his little holiday at Monte Carlo. As the week wore on, and Elizabeth did not appear at breakfast, he became indignant. He had been cheated of the object he had had in view in coming here. And the worst of it was, he could not proclaim his
