face. Why was Anna Wolsky going to Lacville? There was something about
the place concerning which she had chosen to be mysterious, and yet she
had made no secret of going there.

Mrs. Bailey jumped out of bed, and dressed rather more quickly than
usual.

It was a very hot day. In fact, it was unpleasantly hot. How delightful
it would be to get into the country even for an hour. Why should she not
also make her way to Lacville?

She opened the "Guide-Book to Paris and its Environs," of which she had
made such good use in the last month, and looked up "Lacville" in the
index.

Situated within a drive of the beautiful Forest of Montmorency, the
pretty little town of Lacville is still famed for its healing springs
and during the summer months of the year is much frequented by
Parisians. There are frequent trains from the Gare du Nord.

No kind fairy whispered the truth to Sylvia--namely that this account is
only half, nay, a quarter, or an eighth, of the truth.

Lacville is the spendthrift, the gambler--the austere would call her
the chartered libertine--of the group of pretty country towns which
encircle Paris; for Lacville is in the proud possession of a Gambling
Concession which has gradually turned what was once the quietest of
inland watering-places into a miniature Monte Carlo.

The vast majority of intelligent, cultivated English and American