good, so far as Zola is concerned.'

'Well, I will arrange for my wife to see her friend this morning before
she starts,' Mr. Spalding rejoined, 'and in this way we may be sure that
her friend will say nothing.'

This excellent suggestion was acted upon immediately. Mr. Spalding
telegraphed full instructions to his wife, and later in the day I learnt
that everything had been satisfactorily arranged. But for this timely
action, following upon my lucky call at Messrs. Chatto and Windus's
establishment, it is virtually certain that the meeting in the Buckingham
Palace Road would have been talked about and the game of 'Where is Zola?'
brought to an abrupt conclusion. As it happened, both ladies, being duly
warned, preserved absolute secrecy.

After going to Bishopsgate Street to see Wareham, and executing several
minor commissions, I returned to the Grosvenor, where Zola and Desmoulin
were much amused when I told them of the outcome of the previous day's
fright.

'It was a remarkable coincidence certainly,' said M. Zola. 'At a low
calculation I daresay a thousand women passed me in the streets
yesterday; just one of them recognised me, and she, you say, was Mrs.
Spalding. Shortsighted as I am, not having seen her, too, since I was in
England, a few years ago, I had no notion she was the person who turned
as she passed along, and said, "There's Monsieur Zola."

'But the curious part of it is that you should have had to go to
Chatto's, and should have learnt the lady's name so promptly from her
husband! Mathematically there were untold chances that this lady who