speaking in
French.
The flunky took her card and bowed her into a small reception room.
After a moment or so a dapper young man entered, her card in his
fingers.
"Messes Cleephane?" he inquired.
"I am Mrs. Clephane," she replied in French. "I wish to see his
Excellency the Ambassador on a most important matter."
"You have an appointment with his Excellency?" he asked, this time in
French.
"You are--" she inflected.
"His secretary, madame," the young man bowed.
"No, I have not an appointment," she replied, "but I come from Madame
Durrand who was the bearer of a cipher letter from the Foreign Minister.
Madame Durrand was injured as she was about to take train in New York,
and gave me the letter to deliver."
The secretary looked at her blandly and smiled faintly.
"You have the letter with you?" he asked.
"Again, no," she replied. "It is to explain its loss, and to warn the
Ambassador that I am here."
"His Excellency is exceedingly busy--will you not relate the
circumstances to me?"
"My instructions from Madame Durrand are most specific that I am to deal
only with his Excellency," Mrs. Clephane explained--with such a dazzling
smile that the secretary's eyes fairly popped. "Won't you please tell
him I'm here, and that I have a luncheon engagement at one o'clock."
The secretary hesitated. Again the smile smote him full in the face--and
he hesitated no longer.
"Come with me, Madame Clephane," he replied "His Excellency is occupied
at present, but I'll deliver your message."
Once more the smile--as opening the door for her he bowed her into an
inner office, and carefully placed a chair for her.
"A moment, madame," he whispered, disappearing through an adjoining
doorway.
Whereat Mrs. Clephane sighed with amused complacency, and waited.
Presently the door opened and the secretary appeared. "His Excellency
will receive you, Madame Clephane," he said.
"I thank you--oh, so much!" she whispered as she passed him--and the
look that went with the words cleared all her scores--and almost
finished him.
So much for a smile--when a beautiful woman smiles, and smiles in just
the right way, and especially when the man smiled on is a Frenchman.
The Ambassador was standing by a large, flat-topped desk in the centre
of the room, his back was to the light, which was generously given in
all its effulgence to his visitors. He was a small man and slight of
build, intensely nervous, with well-cut f
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