under me, a pretty woman in
the tonneau, a May-day to put life into me, and a road so fine that a
man might dream of it in his sleep. And if that's not what the
schoolmaster calls Eldorado, then I'll send him a halfpenny card to
find out just what is.

So let it suffice to say that we went at our leisure--slept at Dijon
and at Lyons, were one night at Avignon, and two nights later at Nice.
If there was anything to remark during the journey, it was Madame's
growing anxiety as we approached the Mediterranean, and the number of
telegrams she sent to her friends whenever we chanced to halt--even in
the meanest villages.

The telegrams I had the pleasure to read more than once as I handed
them over the counter; but those that were in German were no good to
me, and those that were in French I could but half decipher. None the
less, I got the impression that she was in a state of much distress and
perplexity, and that all her messages were to one end--namely, that she
should have the right to go somewhere at present forbidden her, and
that the Baron Albert, whoever he might be, should be interviewed on
her behalf and persuaded that she was a lady of all the virtues.

A final telegram to an English gentleman at Vienna capped all, and was
not to be misunderstood. It simply said, "I shall publish the story if
they persevere." And that seemed to me an ugly threat to come from so
pretty a sender, though of its meaning I had no more knowledge than the
dead.

Perhaps you will say that I was a poor sort to have been reading her
telegrams at all; that it didn't concern me; and that I was paid to
hold my tongue. Well, that is true enough, and Madame had little to
complain of on such a score, I must say. To all and sundry who
questioned me at the hotels, I just said she was the wife of a
Hungarian nobleman, and that she travelled for her pleasure. When we
arrived at Nice, and an impertinent policeman got me into a corner, so
to speak, and tried to put me through the catechism, I simply said, "No
speakee Frenchee--Mistress Americano," and at that he shook his head
and wrote it down in a note-book about as large as a grocer's ledger.
But I plainly perceived that something more than mere police curiosity
accounted for all this cross-examination; and when Madame sent for me
to her private sitting-room that night, I guessed immediately that
something was up, and that I was about to learn the nature of it.

I shall always remember