un across to
Paris during the occupation."

"Good-bye! And accept my very grateful thanks," said Dalroy, and the
train started.

"I cannot tell you how much obliged I am," said a sweet voice as he
settled down into his seat. "Please, may I pay you now for the ticket
which you supplied so miraculously?"

"No miracle, but a piece of rare good-luck," he said. "One of the
attaches at our Embassy arranged to travel to England to-night,
or I would never have got away, even with the support of the State
Councillor who requested Lieutenant von Halwig to befriend me. Then,
at the last moment, Fane couldn't come. I meant asking Von Halwig to
send a messenger to the Embassy with the spare ticket."

"So you will forward the money to Mr. Fane with my compliments," said
the girl, opening her purse.

Dalroy agreed. There was no other way out of the difficulty.
Incidentally, he could not help noticing that the lady was well
supplied with gold and notes.

As they were fellow-travellers by force of circumstances, Dalroy took a
card from the pocket-book in which he was securing a one-hundred-mark
note.

"We have a long journey before us, and may as well get to know each
other by name," he said.

The girl smiled acquiescence. She read, "Captain Arthur Dalroy, 2nd
Bengal Lancers, Junior United Service Club."

"I haven't a card in my bag," she said simply, "but my name is
Beresford--Irene Beresford--Miss Beresford," and she coloured prettily.
"I have made an effort of the explanation," she went on; "but I think it
is stupid of women not to let people know at once whether they are
married or single."

"I'll be equally candid," he replied. "I'm not married, nor likely to
be."

"Is that defiance, or merely self-defence?"

"Neither. A bald fact. I hold with Kitchener that a soldier should
devote himself exclusively to his profession."

"It would certainly be well for many a heart-broken woman in Europe
to-day if all soldiers shared your opinion," was the answer; and Dalroy
knew that his _vis-a-vis_ had deftly guided their chatter on to a more
sedate plane.

The train halted an unconscionable time at a suburban station, and again
at Charlottenburg. The four Germans in the compartment, all Prussian
officers, commented on the delay, and one of them made a joke of it.

"The signals must be against us at Liege," he laughed.

"Perhaps England has sent a regiment of Territorials across by the
Ostend boat," chimed in another. Then