was.

"All right, Nolan," cried Carlton. "They can take in the trunks."

Hearing this, the bareheaded man hastened to help Carlton to alight.
"That was the Duke who just drove off, sir; and those," he said,
pointing to three muffled figures who were stepping into a second
carriage, "are his sisters, the Princesses."

Carlton stopped midway, with one foot on the step and the other in the
air.

"The deuce they are!" he exclaimed; "and which is--" he began, eagerly,
and then remembering himself, dropped back on the cushions of the
hansom.

He broke into the little dining-room at Cox's in so excited a state
that two dignified old gentlemen who were eating there sat open-mouthed
in astonished disapproval. Mrs. Downs and Miss Morris had just come
down stairs.

"I have seen her!" Carlton cried, ecstatically; "only half an hour in
the town, and I've seen her already!"

"No, really?" exclaimed Miss Morris. "And how did she look? Is she as
beautiful as you expected?"

"Well, I can't tell yet," Carlton answered.

"There were three of them, and they were all muffled up, and which one
of the three she was I don't know. She wasn't labelled, as in the
picture, but she was there, and I saw her. The woman I love was one of
that three, and I have engaged rooms at the hotel, and this very night
the same roof shelters us both."

II

"The course of true love certainly runs smoothly with you," said Miss
Morris, as they seated themselves at the table. "What is your next
move? What do you mean to do now?"

"The rest is very simple," said Carlton. "To-morrow morning I will go
to the Row; I will be sure to find some one there who knows all about
them--where they are going, and who they are seeing, and what
engagements they may have. Then it will only be a matter of looking up
some friend in the Household or in one of the embassies who can present
me."

"Oh," said Miss Morris, in the tone of keenest disappointment, "but
that is such a commonplace ending! You started out so romantically.
Couldn't you manage to meet her in a less conventional way?"

"I am afraid not," said Carlton. "You see, I want to meet her very
much, and to meet her very soon, and the quickest way of meeting her,
whether it's romantic or not, isn't a bit too quick for me. There will
be romance enough after I am presented, if I have my way."

But Carlton was not to have his way; for he had overlooked the fact
that it requires as many to