Presently I ventured another question: "You go on business, perhaps--
not on pleasure?"

He turned his melancholy eyes on mine. "Do I look as if I were
traveling for pleasure's sake?" he asked gently.

I felt rebuked, and hastened to apologise. "Pardon me; I ought
not to have said that. But you interest me greatly, and I wish,
if possible, to be of service to you. If you are going into Alpine
districts on business and alone, at this time of the year--"

There I hesitated and paused. How could I tell him that he interested
me so much as to make me long to know the romance which, I felt
convinced, attached to his expedition? Perhaps he perceived what
was in my mind, for he questioned me in his turn. "And you--have
you business in Bale?"

"Yes, and in other places. My accent may have told you my nationality.
I travel in the interests of the American firm, Fletcher Bros.,
Roy, & Co., whose London house, no doubt, you know. But I need
remain only twenty-four hours in Bale. Afterwards I go to Berne,
then to Geneva. I must, however, wait for letters from England
after doing my business at Bale, and I shall have some days free."

"How many?"

"From the 21st to the 26th."

He was silent for a minute, meditating. Then he took from his
traveling-bag a porte-feuille, and from the porte-feuille a visiting-