kind word from her.
She is very patriotic, and all the thoughts and love she has to
spare from herself are given to her country."

Zoe shuddered.

"Ah!" she murmured, "I do not like to think of heartless women.
Perhaps she is not so cruel, after all. To me she seems only very,
very sad. Tell me, Mr. Laverick, why did she send for you?"

"I imagine," said he, "that it was a whim. It must have been a
whim."

CHAPTER XXI

MADEMOISELLE IDIALE'S VISIT

Laverick, on the following morning, found many things to think
about. He was accustomed to lunch always at the same restaurant,
within a few yards of his office, and with the same little company
of friends. Just as he was leaving, an outside broker whom he
knew slightly came across the room to him.

"Tell me, Laverick," he asked, "what's become of your partner?"

"He has gone abroad for a few weeks. As a matter of fact, we shall
be announcing a change in the firm shortly."

"Queer thing," the broker remarked. "I was in Liverpool yesterday,
and I could have sworn that I saw him hanging around the docks. I
should never have doubted it, but Morrison was always so careful
about his appearance, and this fellow was such a seedy-looking
individual. I called out to him and he vanished like a streak."

"It could scarcely have been Morrison," Laverick said. "He sailed
several days ago for New York."

"That settles it," the man declared, passing on. "All the same,
it was the most extraordinary likeness I ever saw."

Laverick, on his way back, went into a cable office and wrote out
a marconigram to the Lusitania,

Have you passenger Arthur Morrison on board? Reply.

He signed his name and paid for an answer. Then he went back to
his office.

"Any one to see me?" he inquired.

"Mr. Shepherd is here waiting," his clerk told him,--"queer
looking fellow who paid you two hundred and fifty pounds in cash
for some railway stock."

Laverick nodded.

"I'll see him," he said. "Anything else?"

"A lady rang up--name sounded like a French one, but we could none
of us catch what it was--to say that she was coming down to see you."

"If it is Mademoiselle Idiale," Laverick directed, "I must see her
directly she arrives. How are you, Shepherd?" he added, nodding to
the waiter as he passed towards his room. "Come in, will you?
You've got your certificates all right?"

Mr. James Shepherd had the air of a man with whom prosperity had not
wholly a