to know when her Mamma and cousin would return to her.

That took the Signorina flying to the bedroom, and there was an interval
of some suspense for Ralph and me; for the absence of the ladies, with
this new light thrown upon it, began to appear a little strange.

The Italian girl was away for an age, it seemed, and we knew the instant
we saw her, that she was not the bearer of reassuring news. Her pretty
face looked worried and excited.

"The Countess and Miss Destrey have not been up-stairs," she announced
in her native tongue. "The little Bice has been awake for an hour,
wondering why they never came. Will you make inquiries of the landlord?"

I lost not a moment in obeying this request; and even before I got my
answer, I seemed to know that Dalmar-Kalm would be mixed up in the
affair. The ladies had driven away with His Highness in a hired cab not
many minutes after we had brought them to the hotel door with the
motor.

On the face of it, it looked ridiculous to fear mischief, yet I was
uneasy. If I had not worshipped Her so much--but then, there had ceased
to be any "if" in it long ago. I had very little hope that she could
ever be got to care, even if I could reconcile it with common decency to
ask a girl to think of a stony-broke beggar like me. But in some moods I
was mad to try my luck, when I reflected on what she had before her if
I--or some other brute of a man--didn't snatch her from it. But whether
or no she were ever to be more to me than a goddess, the bare thought of
trouble or harm coming to her was enough to drive me out of my wits.

While I was smoking two cigarettes a minute on the verandah, and asking
myself whether I should be Paddy the Fool to track her down, with her
aunt and the Prince, Signorina Bari (who had run up to Beechy with the
latest developments) came out to us. "Sir Ralph," said she, "little Miss
Kidder says she must see you, in a great hurry. She has something
important to tell, that she can't tell to any one else; so she has got
up, and is on the sofa in a dressing-gown, in the Countess's private
sitting-room."

Ralph looked surprised, but not displeased, and was away twenty minutes.

"Miss Beechy wants us to find out where Dalmar-Kalm has taken her mother
and Miss Destrey," said he, when he returned from the interview.

The order was welcome. Nothing was known at the hotel concerning the
destination of the Prince and his companions in the cab, so I hurried to
get the c