meet an old friend, one who has accepted our dinners and with
whom we have often dined, what is left but to fall on his neck and weep?
There was, then, over this meeting, much ado with handshaking and
compliments, handshaking and questions; and, as in all cases like this,
every one talked at once. How was old New York? How was the winter in
Cairo? And so forth and so on, till a policeman politely told them that
this was not a private thoroughfare, and that they were blocking the
way. So they parted, the two young men having promised to dine with the
Sandford party that evening.

"What luck, Dan!" Hillard was exuberant.

"Saves you the price of a dinner."

"I wasn't thinking of that. But I shall find out all about her
to-night."

"Who?"

"The Lady in the Fog, the masquerading lady!"

"Bah! I should prefer something more solid than a vanishing lady."

"Look here, Dan, I never throw cold water on you."

"There have been times when it would have done my head good."

Sandford knew how to order a dinner; and so by the time that Merrihew
had emptied his second glass of Burgundy and his first of champagne, he
was in the haze of golden confidence. He would find Kitty, and when he
found her he would find her heart as well.

"Say, Jack," said Sandford, "what did you mean by that fool cable,
anyhow?"

Hillard had been patiently waiting for an opening of this sort. "And
what did you mean by hoaxing me?"

"Hoaxing you?"

"That's the word. I was in your house that night; I was there as surely
as I am here to-night."

"Nell, am I crazy, or is it Jack?"

"Sometimes," said Mrs. Sandford, "when you put the chauffeur in the
tonneau, I'm inclined to think that it is you."

Hillard looked straight into the placid grey eyes of his hostess. Very
slowly one of the white lids drooped. His heart bounded.

"But really," continued Sandford seriously, "unless you bribed the
caretaker, you could not possibly have entered the house. You have been
dreaming."

"Very well, then; it begins to look as if I had." It was apparent to
Hillard that Sandford was not in his wife's confidence in all things. He
also saw the wisdom of dropping the subject while at the table. To take
up the thread of that romance again! He needed no wine to tingle his
blood.

They took coffee and liqueur in the glass-inclosed balcony. All Naples
sparkled at their feet, and the young moon rose over the Sorrentine
Hills. Sandford and Merrihew and the other two