"'Very well,' said I; 'I'm Mrs. Clephane.'

"'Oh, Mrs. Clephane, we have been trying for you since ten o'clock!'
said he. 'The Ambassador wishes to see you at once. Can you be ready to
come in fifteen minutes--we'll send a carriage for you?'

"'How did you know'--I began, then stopped. 'Yes, I'll be ready,' said
I; 'but let one of the staff come with the carriage.'

"'Oh, of course!' he replied. 'In fifteen minutes, madame?'

"I didn't fancy going out at midnight, yet I had undertaken the matter
and I would see it through. I had not changed from my travelling suit
and it hadn't a pocket in it; nor had I one such as Madame Durrand
employed, so I was carrying the letter pinned inside my waist. Now I
took it out and put it in my hand-bag, all the while thinking over the
affair and liking it less the more I thought. It was pretty late at
night, and there was something suspicious about the affair. I went to
the desk and hurriedly wrote a note to the friends that I had just left;
then I called a page, and ordered him to take it at once to the
Shoreham. On the envelope I had written the instruction that it was not
to be delivered until morning.

"As I finished, the telephone rang and Mr. and Mrs. Buissard, I think
that was the name, were announced as coming by appointment. I went down
at once. Mrs. Buissard was in evening dress, a pretty, vivacious woman,
Mr. Buissard was a man of thirty, slender, with a little black
moustache and black hair. Somehow I didn't like him; and I was glad he
had brought his wife--she was charming.