very moderate considering how good her lunch
had been, and then slowly made her way out of the Villa du Lac, down
across the stone-flagged courtyard to the gate, and so into the sanded
road.

Crossing over, she began walking by the edge of the lake; and once more
loneliness fell upon her. The happy-looking people who passed her
laughing and talking together, and the more silent couples who floated by
on the water in the quaint miniature sailing boats with which the surface
of the lake was now dotted, were none of them alone.

Suddenly the old parish church of Lacville chimed out the hour--it was
only one o'clock--amazingly early still!

Someone coming across the road lifted his hat. Could it be to her? Yes,
for it was the young man who had shared with her, for a time, the large
dining-room of the Villa du Lac.

Again Sylvia was struck by what she could only suppose were the
stranger's good manners, for instead of staring at her, as even the
good-humoured bourgeois with whom she had travelled from Paris that
morning had done, the Count--she remembered he was a Count--turned
sharply to the right and walked briskly along to the turning which
led to the Casino.

The Casino? Why, of course, it was there that she must look for Anna
Wolsky. How stupid of her not to have thought of it! And so, after
waiting a moment, she also joined the little string of people who were
wending their way towards the great white building.

After having paid a franc for admission, Sylvia found herself in the hall
of the Casino of Lacville. An eager attendant rushed forward to relieve
her of the dust-cloak and parasol which she was carrying.

"Does Madame wish to go straight to the Room of the Games?" he inquired
eagerly.

Sylvia bent her head. It was there, or so she supposed, that Anna would
be.

Feeling a thrill of keen curiosity, she followed the man through a
prettily-decorated vestibule, and so into a large room, overlooking the
lake, where already a crowd of people were gathered round the green baize
tables.

The Salle des Jeux at Lacville is a charming, conservatory-like
apartment, looking, indeed, as if it were actually built out on the
water.

But none of the people were looking at the beautiful scene outside.
Instead, each group was intent on the table, and on the game being played
thereon--a game, it may be mentioned, which has a certain affinity with
Roulette and Petits Chevaux, though it is neither the one nor the othe