He was a famous Parisian doctor, re- puted to know all that was to be known about the human heart, and doubtless few people could fault him on the goings on of auricles and ventricles, the superior and inferior, vena cava. And to judge by the way women patients flocked to him, he might have been supposed to have a special knowledge of their problems, But when his own heart, after long immunity, became, emotionally affected, and he wanted to win that of a shy young English girl, who had only a few months to spend, in his beautiful, glittering city and who had an attrac- tive fellow-cauntrymon intent on gaining that same heart if he could then Dr Daudet had to start learning all over again!

However long she lived, Valentine would never understand Amelia Constantia's will! Why would a woman who had known her so briefly leave her all that wealth on condition that she marry within a year? Dr. Leon Daudet was curious, too -- especially as the money would pass to him if Valentine defaulted. But why should he be so angry? As Valentine told him, she had no intention of getting married -- ever!