smoke. So I picked her hand bag off the floor and asked her where I
might place it.

"As I spoke I looked at her for the first time, and saw that she was a
most remarkably handsome woman.

"She smiled charmingly and begged me not to disturb myself. Then she
arranged her own things about her, and, opening her dressing-bag, took
out a gold cigarette case.

"'Do you object to smoke?' she asked.

"I laughed and assured her I had been in great terror lest she might
object to it herself.

"'If you like cigarettes,' she said, 'will you try some of these? They
are rolled especially for my husband in Russia, and they are supposed to
be very good.'

"I thanked her, and took one from her case, and I found it so much
better than my own that I continued to smoke her cigarettes throughout
the rest of the journey. I must say that we got on very well. I judged
from the coronet on her cigarette-case, and from her manner, which was
quite as well bred as that of any woman I ever met, that she was some
one of importance, and though she seemed almost too good looking to be
respectable, I determined that she was some _grande dame_ who was so
assured of her position that she could afford to be unconventional. At
first she read her novel, and then she made some comment on the scenery,
and finally we began to discuss the current politics of the Continent.
She talked of all the cities in Europe, and seemed to know every one
worth knowing. But she volunteered nothing about herself except that she
frequently made use of the expression, 'When my husband was stationed at
Vienna,' or 'When my husband was promoted to Rome.' Once she said to me,
'I have often seen you at Monte Carlo. I saw you when you won the pigeon
championship.' I told her that I was not a pigeon shot, and she gave a
little start of surprise. 'Oh, I beg your pardon,' she said; 'I thought
you were Morton Hamilton, the English champion.' As a matter of fact,
I do look like Hamilton, but I know now that her object was to make
me think that she had no idea as to who I really was. She needn't have
acted at all, for I certainly had no suspicions of her, and was only too
pleased to have so charming a companion.

"The one thing that should have made me suspicious was the fact that
at every station she made some trivial excuse to get me out of the
compartment. She pretended that her maid was travelling back of us in
one of the second-class carriages, and kept saying she could not ima