so captivating, that John was desperately sorry that he had taken
advantage of her preoccupation.

"It was Mrs. Car-roll who beat me, not you," she said. "I was listening
to her and not thinking."

"Of me? You never do," he whispered.

She was resetting the board, and giving John delicious little thrills
from her finger-tips, when Uncle Jimmy threw open the door.

"Baron von Rittenheim," he announced.

Sydney rose in greeting, and Mrs. Carroll gave an exclamation of
pleasure at the coming of her favorite, but both were startled into
silence by Hilda's cry. The chess-board emptied its burden upon the
floor with many tinkling crashes, and she was on her feet, one hand
pressed against her head, and the other turned palm outward as if to
avert a blow. A grayness like the livery of death came over her face,
but now so vitally warm. The red lamp-light behind increased her
ghastliness. Her eyes were fixed on the man who had followed von
Rittenheim into the room.

"You, you!" she whispered, hoarsely.

Von Sternburg gave a cry of amazement.

"The Baroness--_here_! Why didn't you tell me, Friedrich?" he demanded,
while his mind quickly reviewed the possible relations between von
Rittenheim and his sister-in-law, and considered the effect upon them
of his frank disclosures of the morning.

Friedrich, whose gaze had been searching keenly first one face and then
the other, gave a nod, and without replying to his friend, introduced
him to Mrs. Carroll and Sydney. Von Sternburg bent over each hand and
then approached Hilda. She was regaining her control, though she
trembled so violently as to justify in his precaution Wendell, who had
sprung to her, fearing that she would fall.

"This is an unexpected meeting, Baroness," von Sternburg said, in
English.

"Why have you come?" she asked, in the same hoarse but articulate
whisper.

"As I told Fr-riedrich, Baedeker brought me. I had no idea that I was
to have the pleasure of seeing him again among these mountains, much
less, you."

"You two men must have had an enormous amount to say to each other,"
said Mrs. Carroll. "John, give Hilda that large chair. The surprise of
seeing Baron von Sternburg has been too much for her."

Hilda sank into the offered seat, and von Sternburg placed himself
beside her. He fitted his clothes to the cracking-point, and he had the
lack of impressiveness that goes with rotundity. Yet it was clear that
he felt himself to have the whip-hand o