n.
"But why?"

"Because you ask no questions. You take things as they come. I did not
expect you would come to Montreal."

"Then you know--but of course, I told you."

"Have you then no question?" she went on at last. Her glass stood half
full; her wrists rested gently on the table edge, as she leaned back,
looking at me with that on her face which he had needed to be wiser than
myself, who could have read.

"May I, then?"

"Yes, now you may go on."

"I thank you. First, of course, for what reason do you carry the secrets
of my government into the stronghold of another government? Are you the
friend of America, or are you a spy upon America? Are you my friend, or
are we to be enemies to-night?"

She flung back her head and laughed delightedly. "That is a good
beginning," she commented.

"You must, at a guess, have come up by way of the lakes, and by batteau
from La Prairie?" I ventured.

She nodded again. "Of course. I have been here six days."

"Indeed?--you have badly beaten me in our little race."

She flashed on me a sudden glance. "Why do you not ask me outright _why_
I am here?"

"Well, then, I do! I do ask you that. I ask you how you got access to
that meeting to-night--for I doubt not you were there?"

She gazed at me deliberately again, parting her red lips, again smiling
at me. "What would you have given to have been there yourself?"

"All the treasures those vaults ever held."

"So much? What will you give me, then, to tell you what I know?"

"More than all that treasure, Madam. A place--"

"Ah! a 'place in the heart of a people!' I prefer a locality more
restricted."

"In my own heart, then; yes, of course!"

She helped herself daintily to a portion of the white meat of the fowl.
"Yes," she went on, as though speaking to herself, "on the whole, I
rather like him. Yet what a fool! Ah, such a droll idiot!"

"How so, Madam?" I expostulated. "I thought I was doing very well."

"Yet you can not guess how to persuade me?"

"No; how could that be?"

"Always one gains by offering some equivalent, value for
value--especially with women, Monsieur."

She went on as though to herself. "Come, now, I fancy him! He is
handsome, he is discreet, he has courage, he is not usual, he is not
curious; but ah, _mon Dieu_, what a fool!"

"Admit me to be a fool, Madam, since it is true; but tell me in my folly
what equivalent I can offer one who has everything in the world--wealth,
taste, culture, e