murely as she held the
door open to admit him, and said:

"Good evening, _Monsieur le Docteur_; you perceive I am here before
you."

"Rather, I don't perceive it. _You_ are here before me in a double
sense of the word; yes. And I suppose you call yourself--"

"Celine Leroque, at your service; maid-in-waiting to Miss Arthur, of
Oakley."

Doctor Vaughan laughed.

"Well, won't you shake hands with an American of no special
importance, Celine Leroque?"

She placed her hand in his and then drew forward a chair.

"I hope you found no difficulty in getting out to-night?" he said,
sitting down and looking at her with a half-amused, half-grave
countenance.

"None whatever; I have been suffering with a sick-headache all day."

"And you can get in again unseen?"

"Easily; in the evening the servants are all below stairs."

"But what an odd disguise! Do they never question your blue glasses?"

"Not half so much as they would question the eyes without them. They
believe my eyes were ruined by close application to fine needle-work.
And then--" she pushed up the glasses a trifle, and he saw that the
eyelid, and a line underneath the eye, were artistically
_rouged_--"they all acknowledge that my eyes look very weak."

"I fancy they'll find those eyes have looked too sharply for them, by
and by."

She laughed lightly. "I hope so."

Sitting there in her prim disguise, the girl felt glad to gaze upon
him; felt as if, look as much as she would, she was gazing from a safe
distance.

Dr. Vaughan came straight to the point of his visit, beginning by
requesting a repetition of such portion of the facts she had
discovered as related most particularly to the two men, Davlin and
Percy. Then he made his suggestion. To his surprise it was a welcome
one to the girl.

"That is just what I have had in mind," she said, thoughtfully. "After
reflecting, I have changed my plans somewhat, and I don't see my way
quite so clearly as before."

He was looking at her attentively, but asked no questions.

"Since I came from the city," she resumed, with some hesitation, "I
have thought that I would be glad to talk again with all of you. But
it won't do to incur the risk of more absences, for if I do not
mistake the signs, things will be pretty lively up there," nodding in
the direction of Oakley, "before many days. So perhaps we had better
see what our two heads can develop in the way of counterplot, and you
can make known the result to