behind. Receiving no intimation from her, they crossed the road
to the corner of Great Stanhope Street. But they had not proceeded far
when Anneli said,

"Ah, Fraulein, the lady is gone! You may look after her now. See!"

That was enough for George Brand. He had no difficulty in making out
the dark figure that Anneli indicated; and he was in no great hurry, for
he feared the stranger might discover that she was being followed. But
he breathed more freely when he had bidden good-bye to Natalie, and seen
her set out for home.

He leisurely walked up Park Lane, keeping an eye from time to time on
the figure in black, but not paying too strict attention, lest she
should turn suddenly and observe him. In this way he followed her up to
Oxford Street; and there, in the more crowded thoroughfare, he lessened
the distance between them considerably. He also watched more closely
now, and with a strange interest. From the graceful carriage, the
beautiful figure, he was almost convinced that that, indeed, was
Natalie's mother; and he began to wonder what he would say to her--how
he would justify his interference.

The stranger stopped at a door next a shop in the Edgware Road; knocked,
waited, and was admitted. Then the door was shut again.

It was obviously a private lodging-house. He took a half-crown in his
hand to bribe the maid-servant, and walked boldly up to the door and
knocked. It was not a maid-servant who answered, however; it was a man
who looked something like an English butler, and yet there was a foreign
touch about his dress--probably, Brand thought, the landlord. Brand
pulled out a card-case, and pretended to have some difficulty in getting
a card from it.

"The lady who came in just now--" he said, still looking at the cards.

"Madame Berezolyi? Yes, sir."

His heart jumped. But he calmly took out a pencil, and wrote on one of
the cards, in French, "_One who knows your daughter would like to see
you_."

"Will you be so kind as to take up that card to Madame Berezolyi? I
think she will see me. I will wait here till you come down."

The man returned in a couple of minutes.

"Madame Berezolyi will be pleased to see you, sir; will you step this
way?"

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE MOTHER.

This beautiful, pale, trembling mother: she stood there, dark against
the light of the window; but even in the shadow how singularly like she
was to Natalie, in the tall, slender, elegant figure, the proud set of
the