e hotel, the concierge said to him
mysteriously:

"There was a lady here, sir."

"A lady! What lady?"

"Ah! sir, that I can't say. My discretion was too great to permit me to
ask her name. I think she is young and pretty, though she was heavily
vailed. She asked for you, and when I told her you were out she looked
embarrassed, and finally drew from her pocket a little note which she
had prepared. She gave it to me, saying it was very urgent."

"A note! Where is it? You should have given it to me at once."

"Oh! it is safe, sir, in my davenport."

A concierge with a davenport! What is the world coming to, thought
Goutran.

Finally the good man produced the paper in question, rose colored and
perfumed. Goutran tore it open, but did not read it until he reached his
own room. The address was in delicate, long letters, the result of
lessons from an English master. Who could have sent it? He did not know
the writing. But when he glanced at the signature he with difficulty
refrained from a cry of surprise. The note was signed, "Carmen de
L----." These were its contents:

"MONSIEUR GOUTRAN--or will you allow me to call you my friend--I must
see you at once on matters of vast importance. To-night, at eleven
o'clock, I shall expect you. Ring at the side door of the hotel; my
maid will be in attendance. Do not fail, for you and those you love
are in danger."

Goutran was amazed. What did these mysterious lines mean? And of whom
did Carmen speak when she said "those you love"? He was greatly
disturbed, but he was not the man to hesitate.

At ten o'clock he was already walking up and down a street which
commanded a view of the Hotel Laisangy, but he felt none of the emotion
natural to a lover going to a rendezvous. He had a feeling of strange
oppression. Finally the clock struck eleven. The side door was on the
Rue Saint Honore. Goutran was about to ring the bell, when the door was
opened and a hand was laid on his.

"Come this way," said a woman's voice.

It was the curious maid whom we have already seen. She was enchanted,
feeling sure that it was a lover she admitted. The stairs were carpeted
and dimly lighted. Presently he entered Carmen's boudoir, but she was
not there.

"I will notify the young lady," said the maid, with one of those knowing
smiles that tell so much.

Goutran was standing with his hat in his hand when Carmen entered. She
was very simply dressed in black. Her beautiful face was