She and Herr Croll had known each other for a great many years, and were, she thought, of about the same age.  Croll had some money saved.  She had, at any rate, her jewels,—­and Croll would probably be able to get some portion of all that money, which ought to be hers, if his affairs were made to be identical with her own.  So she smiled upon Croll, and whispered to him; and when she had given Croll two glasses of Curacao,—­which comforter she kept in her own hands, as safeguarded almost as the jewels,—­then Croll understood her.

But it was essential that she should know what Marie intended to do.  Marie was anything but communicative, and certainly was not in any way submissive.  ‘My dear,’ she said one day, asking the...