ster as Miss
Ellicott. Clearly it would never do to let Mr. Phelps know that she had
deceived him.

She arrived at the house early, and after being introduced to Mrs.
Phelps, went to the latter's room to remove her wraps, and to talk over
their mutual acquaintances. None of the other guests had as yet arrived.
Grace talked to Mrs. Phelps as brightly as she could, but her mind was
intent upon Richard, and she wondered when and how she would hear from
him.

Duvall, meanwhile, had been engaged in changing his clothes. When he at
last put on the white waistcoat of his evening suit, he took up the one
he had worn during the day and removed from it the ivory snuff box which
had been the cause of his interrupted honeymoon. He glanced at the thing
carelessly, before placing it in his waistcoat pocket, and as he did so,
he fancied he detected a slight noise in the corridor without. In a
moment he had thrown open the door which led to the hall. A
man--evidently one of the hotel servants--was just rising from his
knees, a small brush in one hand, a dust pan in the other.

Duvall looked at him sharply. The man bowed, smiling in a stupid way,
then began to withdraw, explaining that he was cleaning the hall, and
hoping that he had not disturbed "monsieur." The detective closed the
door, uncertain whether the man had been watching him or not. He
remembered Dufrenne's warning, and realized that in going out, alone,
this night, he ran some chances of having the snuff box taken from him.
Of course, it was unlikely that Dr. Hartmann had any suspicions of
him--yet it seemed advisable to put the box in as safe a place as
possible, at least until he was once more across the French frontier.
Yet where could he put it? To secrete the thing in his room was out of
the question. The place might be searched, for all he knew, within half
an hour of his leaving it. To conceal it successfully about his person
seemed equally impossible. Where, indeed, could he hope to hide an
object of this size, so as to defy a search, in case one should be made?
His eyes suddenly fell upon the opera hat which he had taken from his
portmanteau. He took it up and gazed at it with a smile, then quickly
whipped out his knife and began, with great care, to detach the inner
lining of the crown for a distance of perhaps three or four inches.
Carefully drawing back the lining, he slipped the thin ivory box beneath
it, and pushed it back into place. The lining was of heav