"Nonsense," snarled the Egyptian. "Use all your seductive arts first,
and if you fail to win her by those, trust me to weave such a chain of
events as shall make her become Mrs. Voltaire."

Up to this point I listened attentively, and then a minute's silence on
their part aroused me to myself. Was it right to stand listening thus?
And yet a thousand things justified the act.

They moved on from the spot where they had been standing, but I was too
much stunned to follow them. At that moment I realized that I had given
my heart to Gertrude Forrest, and that another man had designs
concerning her.

This sudden falling into love may appear foolish, especially when it is
remembered that I had passed the age of boyhood, and yet I have known
several cases similar to my own. Anyhow, I, who had never loved before,
loved now--loved, perhaps, foolishly; for I knew nothing of the lady I
loved, and, of course, had not the slightest hope of her caring for me.

Thus it was with a throbbing heart that I stood there alone upon the
lawn, with the knowledge of my new-found love just breaking upon me,
and, more than that, I had every reason to fear that she was to be made
the dupe of two clever villains.

I turned to follow them, but they were gone I knew not whither, and so I
went back to the house determined that, if I could be nothing else, I
would be Miss Forrest's protector.

I had been back in the drawing-room perhaps ten minutes, when Voltaire
and Kaffar returned, and apparently entered with great zest into the