"Something I wanted!" exclaimed Miss Morris, in dismay.

Carlton laughed easily. "It is just as well I didn't sign it, after
all," he said. "I don't want to proclaim my devotion to any Hungarian
gypsy who happens to read English."

"You must draw me another, as a souvenir," Miss Morris said.

Nolan continued on through the length of the car until he had reached
the one occupied by the Hohenwalds, where he waited on the platform
until the English maidservant saw him and came to the door of the
carriage.

"What hotel are your people going to stop at in Constantinople?" Nolan
asked.

"The Grande-Bretagne, I think," she answered.

"That's right," said Nolan, approvingly. "That's the one we are going
to. I thought I would come and tell you about it. And, by-the-way,"
he said, "here's a picture somebody's made of your Princess Aline. She
dropped it, and I picked it up. You had better give it back to her.
Well," he added, politely, "I'm glad you are coming to our hotel in
Constantinople; it's pleasant having some one to talk to who can speak
your own tongue."

The girl returned to the car, and left Nolan alone upon the platform.
He exhaled a long breath of suppressed excitement, and then gazed
around nervously upon the empty landscape.

"I fancy that's going to hurry things up a bit," he murmured, with an
anxious smile; "he'd never get along at all if it wasn't for me."

For reasons possibly best understood by the German ambassador, the
state of the Hohenwalds at Constantinople differed greatly from that
which had obtained at the French capital. They no longer came and went
as they wished, or wandered through the show-places of the city like
ordinary tourists. There was, on the contrary, not only a change in
their manner towards others, but there was an insistence on their part
of a difference in the attitude of others towards themselves. This
showed itself in the reserving of the half of the hotel for their use,
and in the haughty bearing of the equerries, who appeared unexpectedly
in magnificent uniforms. The visitors' book was covered with the
autographs of all of the important people in the Turkish capital, and
the Sultan's carriages stood constantly before the door of the hotel,
awaiting their pleasure, until they became as familiar a sight as the
street dogs, or as cabs in a hansom-cab rank.

And in following out the programme which had been laid down for her,
the Princess Aline became even less ac