might have been a prima donna whose real name was Guggenslocker
but whose stage name was something more euphonious. He instantly
put away the thought and the fear. She was certainly not an
opera singer--impossible! He drove back to his hotel, and made
preparations for his return to Washington. Glancing casually
over the register he came to the name that had been haunting him
--Guggenslocker! There were the names, "Caspar Guggenslocker and
four, Graustark." Without hesitation he began to question the
clerk.

"They sailed on the Kaiser Wilhelm to-day;" said that worthy.
"That's all I know about them. They came yesterday and left to.
day."

Mr. Grenfall Lorry returned to Washington as in a dream--a fairy
dream. The air of mystery that had grown from the first was now
an impenetrable wall, the top of which his curiosity could not
scale. Even his fancy, his imagination, served him not. There
was but one point on which he was satisfied: he was in love. His
own condition was no mystery.

Several weeks later he went to New York to question the Captain
of the Wilhelm, hoping to clear away the clouds satisfactorily.
To his amazement, the captain said there had been no
Guggenslockers on board nor had there been persons answering the
description, so far as he could tell.

Through the long hot summer he worked, and worried, and wondered.
In the first, he did little that was satisfactory to himself or
to his uncle; in the second, he did so much that he was advised