Now, he chose a small table in a corner of the balcony, close to the
glass screen. A month later, he might have had to engage it long
beforehand; but to-day, though the place was well filled with pretty
women and their attendant men, there was not a crowd, and he could
listen to his companion's low-voiced confidences without fear of being
overheard.




[Illustration: CHAPTER TWO]

THE ROSE GIRL'S LITTLE STORY, AND GREAT EYES


[Illustration: H]

He ordered a lunch which he thought the girl would like, with wine to
revive the faculties that he knew must be failing. Then, when she had
eaten a little, daintily in spite of her hunger, he encouraged her to
talk.

"Mother and I are all alone in the world," she said. "We are Belgian,
and live in Brussels, but we have drifted about a good deal, just
amusing ourselves. Somehow we never happened to come here until a month
ago. Then my mother said one day in Paris, 'Let us go to Monte Carlo. I
dreamed last night that I won twenty thousand francs there.' My mother
is rather superstitious. We came, and she did win, at first. She was
delighted, and believed in her dream, so much that when she began to