hez la
femme!_' That's what you have got to do in the case of Florac, and of a
good many other Frenchmen of his kind, I fancy!"

"I'm going home now, Pargeter," said Vanderlyn with sudden, harsh
decision. "If you really wish me to go out to Marly-le-Roi in one of
your cars to-morrow morning, will you please give orders for it to be
round at my place at nine o'clock?"

V.

From what seemed an infinite distance, Vanderlyn awoke the next morning
to hear the suave voice of his servant, Poulain, murmuring in his ear,
"The automobile is here to take Monsieur for a drive in the country. I
did not wish to wake Monsieur, but the chauffeur declared that Monsieur
desired the automobile to be here at nine."

Poulain's master sat up in bed and stared at Poulain. Then suddenly he
remembered everything that had happened to him the evening before. In a
flash he even lived once more the wakeful hours of the night which had
had so awful a beginning; only at four o'clock had he found sleep.

"Yes?" he said. Then again, "Yes, Poulain. I wished to start at nine
o'clock. Say that I shall be down in a quarter of an hour."

"And then, while Monsieur is dressing, my wife will be preparing his
little breakfast--unless, indeed, Monsieur would rather wait, and have
his little breakfast in bed?"

"No," said Vanderlyn, quickly, "I shall not have time to wait for
coffee."

* * * * *

The keen morning air, the swift easy motion of the large car revived
Vanderlyn and steadied his nerves. He elected to sit in front by the
side of Pargeter's silent English chauffeur. At this early hour the
Paris streets were comparatively clear, and a few moments brought them
to the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne. There, half way down was Tom
Pargeter's splendid villa; as they passed it in a flash, Vanderlyn
averted his head. To his morbid fancy it suddenly assumed the aspect of
a great marble tomb.

The car swung on through the now deserted Bois; soon it was rushing up
the steep countrified streets of St. Cloud, and then, settling down to a
high speed, they found themselves in the broad silent alleys of those
splendid royal woods which form so noble a girdle about western Paris.
They sped through sunlit avenues of fresh green foliage, past old houses
which had seen the splendid pageant of Louis the Fifteenth and his Court
sweep by on their way to Marly-le-Roi, and so till they gained the lofty
ridge which dominates the wid