ure of glory, yet he forced himself again to express the deepest
sympathy. "Yes," went on Madame, "I would avenge him. I work,"--she
glanced round cautiously, and then whispered--"I work for the
_gouvernement anglais_. I am an _agent de police_."

"Were you not rather rash," I asked of Madame Gilbert, "to give
yourself away so completely? He might not have been so thorough an ass
as you thought."

"My friend," said Madame calmly, "I had taken tea with him twice, and
had satisfied myself that he was not, what you call, very bright. A
dear fellow, handsome, a gentleman of the English pattern, but not
bright. If I had not helped him to get a move on, I might have lunched
with him, had tea, dined with him, attended theatres, traversed in
motors your pleasant countryside, flirted, until I had become a very
old woman, and there would have been nothing to show for all my
exertions. I remembered the instructions of Mr. Dawson, I recalled to
myself my duty, I was compelled to discover who and what was this
Capitaine Rouille, and I could only succeed by forcing him to reveal
himself--to give himself away. When I said that I was an agent of the
English police, he did not believe me; but he was curious--he watched
me. I gave him much to watch and to imagine that he had discovered.
Then one began to get forward."

* * * * *

I am ignorant of the diplomatic pourparlers which led up to the
week-end trip to Brighton, that remarkable trip which ended
_l'affaire_ Rust. It must have been planned by Madame; it bears the
unmistakable imprint of her impish wit; it was, too, a bold
development of her designs for the effective speeding up of Rust. He
would have dallied all through the summer, looking feebly for an
opportunity to ravish a despatch-case which always accompanied Madame
and which had become the inseparable and ostentatious "gooseberry" at
their meetings. Madame declared that it was stuffed with papers the
most secret. "The English Government would be desolated if they passed
for one moment out of my hands." This despatch-case played parts quite
human. It was perpetually provocative of Rust's curiosity, and a
reminder that the agreeable pastime of making love to Madame was not
an end in itself, but a means whereby he might discharge his official
duties. It was, moreover, a visible sign that Madame was a woman,
_tres occupee_, and a self-styled _agent de police_; it rested always
silent at her sid