“I thought you had, but I was mistaken,” I answered.  “The thing you have made me do has proved a blessing.  I may have—­altered some of the facts a little, but none of those that concern Mr. Dundas.  And a woman has to use such weapons as she has, against cruel enemies.”

“I hope you’ll defeat yours,” said Miss Forrest.

“I begin to believe I shall,” said I. And we shook hands.  She is the only girl I ever saw who seemed to me worthy of Ivor Dundas.

Early in the afternoon Raoul came, and the first thing I did was to give him the diamonds.

“You are my good angel!” he exclaimed.  “Thank Heaven, I won’t have to take your money now.”

“All that’s mine is yours,” I said.

“It is you I want for mine,” he answered.  “When am I to have you?  Don’t keep me waiting long, my darling.  I’m nothing without you.”

“I don’t want to keep you waiting,” I told him.  And indeed I longed to be his wife—­his, in spite of Godensky; his, till death us should part.

He took me in his arms, and then, when I had promised to marry him as soon as a marriage could be arranged, our talk drifted back to the morning, and the note I had written, telling him that a pretty American girl had found the diamonds.

“She’s engaged to marry Ivor Dundas, an old friend of mine—­the poor fellow so stupidly accused of murder,” I explained.  “But of course he is innocent.  Of course he’ll be discharged without a blot upon his name.  They’re tremendously in love with each other, almost as much as you and I!”

“You didn’t tell me about the love affair in your note,” said Raoul.  “You spoke only of the girl, and the coincidence of her driving past your house, after I went in.”

“There wasn’t time for more in that famous communication!” I laughed.

Raoul echoed me.  “It came rather too near being famous, by the way,” he said.  “Just after I had found it in the safe—­where you would put it, you witch!—­a man came in with an order from the President to copy a clause in a new treaty which is kept there.”

“What treaty?” I asked, with a leap of the heart.

“Oh, one between France, Japan and Russia.  But that isn’t the point.”  (Ah, was it not, if he had known?) The thing is, it would have been rather awkward, wouldn’t it? if I hadn’t got your note out of the safe before the man came in, as he never took his eyes off me, or out of the open safe, for a second.”

“Thank God I wasn’t too late!” I stammered, before I could keep back the rushing words.  “You mean, thank God he wasn’t sooner, don’t you, darling?” amended Raoul.

“Yes, of course.  How stupid I am!” I murmured.