e."

"Well, what is it? Has she robbed the Bank of France?"

"Worse. I told you it was some diplomatic tangle. I was right. It is a
big one."

"For Heaven's sake, go on!"

"She is beautiful."

"Of course; I know that. But what happened?"

"I said she was beautiful."

"Yes, twice, and you have never seen her face."

"No, but you told me so. However, I went early and waited about the
door until she came in. I kept her in sight. It wasn't easy. A
half-hour later I got my chance. She had been left by her last partner
near a small picture-gallery, and was chatting with an old lady. I
said, 'It is my dance, I believe.' She rose at once. As we moved away
I whispered, 'Lincoln,' and on her replying, 'America,' she guided me
through the gallery and at last into a small conservatory and behind
some orange-trees. No one was near. 'One moment,' she said; 'even here
I am not free.' I saw no evidence of her being watched, but she was, I
fancied, in an agony of apprehension. As I mentioned my name and tried
to reassure her, she let fall her black domino saying, 'Quick, push it
under that sofa!' She wore beneath it a pearl-colored silk domino,
and, of course, was still masked."

"By George!" said I, "a woman of resources. How clever that was!"

Merton went on: "Then we sat down, I saying: 'Be cool, and don't
hurry. You are entirely secure.' She did go on, and what a story! She
said:

"'On the night before I involved Mr Greville in trouble, I went to an
evening party at Count le Moyne's. I was never there before, or only
to call on the countess, and at that time talked a few minutes with
the count. They have been here hardly more than a month. When I
arrived there was a great crush in the hall and on the stair. As I
waited to get rid of my wraps the count came through the crowd and
passed me. He had, I suppose, been belated at the Foreign Office. He
seemed to be in haste and went behind a screen and into a room on the
side of the hall. A little later the music up-stairs ceased. I heard
cries of fire. People rushed down the stairway screaming. There was a
jam in the hall and a terrible crush at the outer doors. A curtain had
been blown across a console and taken fire; that was all, but the
alarm and confusion were dreadful. Women fainted. One or two men made
brutal efforts to escape. I have a temperament which leaves me pretty
cool in real danger. There was none but what the terror of these
people created. I was hustled ab