Excerpt astonishing how agreeable she made herself to her victims when she had fairly entrapped them. Bertha hesitated a little before accepting her offer of a seat at her side, but once seated she found herself oddly amused. When Madame de Castro chose to rake the embers of her seventy years, many a lively coal discovered itself among the ashes. Seeing the two women together, Edmondstone shuddered in fastidious protest. "How could you laugh at that detestable old woman?" he exclaimed on encountering Bertha later in the evening. "I wonder that M. Villefort would permit her to talk to you. She is a wicked, cynical creature, who has the hardihood to laugh at her sins instead of repenting of them." "Perhaps that is the reason she is so amusing," said Bertha. Edmondstone answered her with gentle mournfulness. "What " he said. "Have you begun to say such things? You too, Bertha"-- The laugh with which she stopped him was both light and hard. "Where is M. Villefort?" she as