rested on her son that told how keenly she felt every separation from
him.

As for Sir Charles, he had not lost the knowing twinkle of the eye.
Moreover, he knew far better than his wife how real was the claim their
young guest had upon their son. And he bade them go with a hearty grasp
of the hand and a bluff Godspeed.

So it was settled that Verdayne and the Boy, attended only by Vasili,
were to sail for America on the third of July, and passage was
immediately secured on the Lusitania.

* * * * *

On the morning of the day appointed, Paul Zalenska from an upper deck
watched the party he had been awaiting, as they mounted the gang-plank.

Gilbert Ledoux he scarcely noticed. The Count de Roannes, too,
interested him no longer when, with a hasty glance, he had assured
himself that the Frenchman was as old as Ledoux and not the gay young
dandy in Opal's train that he had feared to find him.

He had eyes alone for the girl, and he watched her closely as she
tripped up the gang-plank, clinging to her father's arm and chattering
gayly in that voice he so well remembered.

She was not so small at close range as she had appeared at a distance,
but possessed an exquisite roundness of figure and softness of outline
well in proportion to the shortness of her stature.