Madeleine to pick up an acquaintance with anyone who chooses
to speak to her? An Englishman too!"

"Papa is not mad," cried Madelon, between whom and her uncle
there was apparently a standing skirmish. "He was a very kind
gentleman, and I like him very much; he gave me this little
goldfish, and I shall keep it always, always," and she kissed
it with effusion.

"Bah!" said M. Linders, "English or French, it is all one to
me; and what harm could he do to the little one? It was an
accident, but it does not matter for once. Come, Madelon, you
have forgotten to mark."

"It is your turn to deal next, papa," said the child, "may I
do it for you?"

Horace Graham left Chaudfontaine by the earliest train the
following morning; and of all the people he had seen on that
Sunday evening at the hotel, only two ever crossed his path
again in after years--M. Linders, and his little daughter,
Madeleine.


CHAPTER IV.

Retrospect.


M. Linders was of both Belgian and French extraction, his