at Claridge's.

From that famous hotel I had the pleasure of accompanying him at his
request on a series of visits.

The first was an appointment at the Foreign Office, and there he was
closeted with the Secretary of State for a solid two hours, while I was
kicking my heels in a waiting-room. His last words to me had been
exceedingly disappointing.

"You must forgive me for not taking you with me, Anstruther," he said,
"but the matter I am engaged upon is of such an exceedingly
confidential nature that I dare not disclose it to any one, except the
Ministers themselves."

I simply bowed my acquiescence and said nothing.

But being left alone in the waiting-room, which was liberally supplied
with writing materials, I industriously filled up my time by writing
letters.

First, of course, to Dolores, whom I had left but an hour before at
Claridge's, and to whom I yet felt constrained to pour forth my soul on
paper.

The feeling, I have no doubt, was a mutual one, as when I returned to
my hotel to dress, there was handed to me as usual a letter from
Dolores, giving me an account of her morning's proceedings.

Having disposed of my letter to her on this particular morning, I wrote
to my cousin St. Nivel.

"As for solving the mystery of the old lady at Bath and her casket," I
wrote, "whether she is alive or dead, and why she sent me to Valoro,
_all_, my dear Jack, are to me at the present moment as great a mystery
as the reason why His Serene Highness the Duke of Rittersheim should
want to shoot me at a _battue_ down in Norfolk!

"I go about with Don Juan d'Alta, and I might just as well be walking
about with one of the lions in Trafalgar Square for all the information
I get out of him. His is the silence of the old diplomatist."

To Ethel I sent my love; she was pretty well informed of our movements,
as she and Dolores had become fast friends, and corresponded twice or
thrice a week.

From the Foreign Office Don Juan walked me over to the Home Office, and
there he had a lengthy interview with the Home Secretary of fully an
hour's duration. Finally, we went to Scotland Yard, and there I
thought we should never get away at all; I, of course, being "in
waiting" all the time.

But there was one consolation which Dolores and I had had ever since we
set foot on board the _Oceana_ on our return, and that was, we did not
care how soon Don Juan knew of our betrothal; we only waited for the
old gentleman to be rid