"Come and see me to-morrow at the Hotel de l'Empire," she answered, "and
I'll tell you all about her." The force of this offer in making him
punctual at the Hotel de l'Empire Longmore doubtless never exactly
measured; and it was perhaps well he was vague, for he found his friend,
who was on the point of leaving Paris, so distracted by procrastinating
milliners and perjured lingeres that coherence had quite deserted her.
"You must find Saint-Germain dreadfully dull," she nevertheless had the
presence of mind to say as he was going. "Why won't you come with me to
London?"

"Introduce me to Madame de Mauves," he answered, "and Saint-Germain will
quite satisfy me." All he had learned was the lady's name and residence.

"Ah she, poor woman, won't make your affair a carnival. She's very
unhappy," said Mrs. Draper.

Longmore's further enquiries were arrested by the arrival of a young
lady with a bandbox; but he went away with the promise of a note of
introduction, to be immediately dispatched to him at Saint-Germain.

He then waited a week, but the note never came, and he felt how little
it was for Mrs. Draper to complain of engagements unperformed. He
lounged on the terrace and walked in the forest, studied suburban street
life and made a languid attempt to investigate the records of the court
of the exiled Stuarts; but he spent most of his time in wondering where
Madame de Mauves lived and whether she ever walked on the terrace.
Sometimes, he was at last able to recognise; for one afternoon toward
dusk he made her out from a distance, arrested there alone and leaning
against the low wall. In his momentary hesitation to approach her there
was almost a shade of trepidation, but his curiosity was not chilled by