"No, Zertho. You forget that Liane is my daughter, the daughter of Brooker of the Guards, once an officer, and still, I hope, a gentleman." "Gentleman " sneered the other with a curl of his lip. Erle Brooker shrugged his shoulders, but did not reply. "Yet many women would be eager enough to become Princess d'Auzac if they had the chance," observed the tall, dark-bearded, handsome man, speaking English with a slight accent as he leaned easily against the edge of the table, and glanced around the shabby, cheaply-furnished little dining-room. Sallow-faced, dark-eyed, broad-shouldered, he was aged about forty-with full lips and long tapering hands, white as a woman's.