there were a great hurry."

"There is--the greatest. But in this case, the more haste, the less
speed. That is, if you were to rush off, order a special train, and
charter a tug or motor boat at Dover, as I suppose you mean, my object
would probably be defeated. I came to you because those who are watching
this business wouldn't be likely to guess I had given you a hand in it.
All that you do, however, must be done quietly, with no fuss, no sign of
anything unusual going on. It was natural I should come to a ball given
by my wife's sister, whose husband is my cousin. No one knows of this
interview of ours: I believe I may make my mind easy on that score, at
least. And it is equally natural that you should start on business or
pleasure of your own, for Paris to-morrow morning; also that you should
meet Mademoiselle de Renzie there."

"Mademoiselle de Renzie!" exclaimed Ivor, off his guard for an instant,
and showing plainly that he was taken aback.

"Isn't she a friend of yours?" asked the Foreign Secretary rather
sharply. Though I couldn't see him, I knew exactly how he would be
looking at Ivor, his keen grey eyes narrowed, his clean-shaven lips
drawn in, the long, well-shaped hand, of which he is said to be vain,
toying with the pale Malmaison pink he always wears in his buttonhole.

"Yes, she is a friend of mine," Ivor answered. "But--"

"A 'but' already! Perhaps I'd better tell you that the mission has to do
with Mademoiselle de Renzie, and, directly, with no one else. She has
acted as my agent in Paris."