She shrugged her shoulders.

"Well," she said, glancing down the menu which the waiter had brought,
"if you are poor and content to remain so, one must presume that you
have compensations."

"But I have none!" he declared. "You should know that - you,
Mademoiselle. Life for me means one thing and one thing only!"

She looked at him, for a moment, and down upon the tablecloth. Von
Behrling shook like a man in the throes of some great passion.

"We talk too intimately," she whispered, as the people began to file
in to take their places. "After luncheon we will take our coffee
in my coupe. Then, if you like, we will speak of these matters. I
have a headache. Will you order me some champagne? It is a terrible
thing, I know, to drink wine in the morning, but when one travels,
what can one do? Here come your bodyguard. They look at me as
though I had stolen you away. Remember we take our coffee together
afterwards. I am bored with so much traveling, and I look to you
to amuse me."

Von Behrling's journey was, after all, marked with sharp contrasts.
The kindness of the woman whom he adored was sufficient in itself
to have transported him into a seventh heaven. On the other hand,
he had trouble with his friends. Streuss drew him on one side at
Ostend, and talked to him plainly.

"Von Behrling," he said, "I speak to you on behalf of Kahn and