temperament--I must have energy and action around me."

"I understand that. Felt it myself at times," he answered
sympathetically.

Without apparent reason her thoughts skipped to a woman who had sat near
them at the roulette table. "Wasn't she the image of a disappointed
vulture? I mean the woman in green. Swooping down from a distance to
gorge herself with a tasty feast, and then finding a man with a rake to
chase her off. I chuckled to myself as I watched her. Do men and women
look to you like animals? They do to me. Monte Carlo's a Zoo, only the
animals aren't caged."

"That's right! You're an extraordinarily keen observer, Mrs Matheson."

Sir Francis Letchmere approached them beamingly from the direction of
the Casino. He had won money at _trente-et-quarante_, and was feeling
very pleased with his own judgment and powers of intellect generally.

"Leave him to me," whispered Olive to Larssen. "I'll see that my father
gets busy on the Hudson Bay Scheme. But on one condition."

"What's that?"

"That you stay on at Monte for a few days. I don't want to be left here
alone. I hate being alone."

"I'm due back in London. Urgent business matters."

"Leave them for a few days. Leave them to your managers. Stay here and