"But certainly. He promised to come and tell me the next day how he
amused himself."

"The Cafe Montmartre. Where is it?" she asked.

"In the Place de Montmartre. But Mademoiselle pardons--she will
understand that it is a place for men."

"Are women not admitted?" she asked.

Alphonse smiled.

"But--yes. Only Mademoiselle understands that if a lady should go there
she would need to be very well escorted."

She rose and slipped a coin into his hand.

"I am very much obliged to you," she said. "By the bye, have any other
people made inquiries of you concerning my brother?"

"No one at all, Mademoiselle!" the man answered.

She almost slammed the door behind when she went out.

"And they say that the French police are the cleverest in the world,"
she exclaimed indignantly.

Monsieur Alphonse watched her through the glass pane.

"_Ciel!_ But she is pretty!" he murmured to himself.

* * * * *

She turned into the writing-room, and taking off her gloves she wrote a
letter. Her pretty fingers were innocent of rings, and her handwriting
was a little shaky. Nevertheless, it is certain that not a man passed
through the room who did not find an excuse to steal a second glance at
her. This is what she wrote:--

"MY DEAR ANDREW,--I am in great distress here, and
very unhappy. I should have written to you before, but I know
that you have your own trouble to bear just now, and I hated
to bother you. I arrived here punctually on the date arranged
upon between Guy and myself, and found that he had arrived the
night before, and had engaged a room for me. He was out when I
came. I changed my clothes and sat down to wait for him. He
did not return. I made inquiries and found that he had left
the hotel at eight o'clock the previous evening. To cut the
matter short, ten days have now elapsed and he has not yet
returned.

"I have been to the Embassy, to the police, and to the Morgue.
Nowhere have I found the slightest trace of him. No one seems
to take the least interest in his disappearance. The police
shrug their shoulders, and look at me as though I ought to
understand--he will return very shortly they are quite sure.
At the Embassy they have begun to look upon me as a nuisance.
The Morgue--Heaven send that I may one day forget the horror
of my hasty visits there. I have come to the conclusi