f. To be equally brief I may say simply that it
asked me to be ready to start for Canada that night on business
connected with the Department of State! Of reasons or explanations it
gave none.

I turned to Elisabeth and held out the message from my chief. She looked
at it. Her eyes widened. "Nicholas!" she exclaimed.

I looked at her in silence for a moment. "Elisabeth," I said at last, "I
have been gone on this sort of business long enough. What do you say to
this? Shall I decline to go? It means my resignation at once."

I hesitated. The heart of the nation and the nation's life were about
me. Our state, such as it was, lay there in that room, and with it our
problems, our duties, our dangers. I knew, better than most, that there
were real dangers before this nation at that very hour. I was a lover,
yet none the less I was an American. At once a sudden plan came into my
mind.

"Elisabeth," said I, turning to her swiftly, "I will agree to nothing
which will send me away from you again. Listen, then--" I raised a hand
as she would have spoken. "Go home with your Aunt Betty as soon as you
can. Tell your father that to-night at six I shall be there. Be ready!"

"What do you mean?" she panted. I saw her throat flutter.

"I mean that we must be married to-night before I go. Before eight
o'clock I must be on the train."

"When will you be back?" she whispered.

"How can I tell? When I go, my wife shall wait there at Elmhurst,
instead of my sweetheart."

She turned away from me, contemplative. She, too, was young. Ardor
appealed to her. Life stood before her, beckoning, as to me. What could
the girl do or say?

I placed her hand on my arm. We started toward the door, intending to
pick up Aunt Jennings on our way. As we advanced, a group before us
broke apart. I stood aside to make way for a gentleman whom I did not
recognize. On his arm there leaned a woman, a beautiful woman, clad in a
costume of flounced and rippling velvet of a royal blue which made her
the most striking figure in the great room. Hers was a personality not
easily to be overlooked in any company, her face one not readily to be
equalled. It was the Baroness Helena von Ritz!

We met face to face. I presume it would have been too much to ask even
of her to suppress the sudden flash of recognition which she showed. At
first she did not see that I was accompanied. She bent to me, as
though to adjust her gown, and, without a change in the expression