father's footsteps, she was plunged in thought. What would be
the result of this interview with the English mechanics?

They came to a big red brick building. Here she saw Mombleux walking
back and forth, evidently in a bad humor, and it seemed to her that he
threw her anything but a friendly look.

They went in and were taken up to the first floor. Here in a big hall
stood a number of wooden crates bearing a firm's name, "Morton and
Pratt, Manchester." On one of the crates the Englishmen were sitting,
waiting. Perrine noticed that from their dress they had every appearance
of being gentlemen, and she hoped that she would be able better to
understand them than if they had been rough workingmen. When M. Vulfran
entered they rose.

"Tell them that you can speak English and that they can explain to you,"
said M. Vulfran.

She did what she was told, and at the first words she had the satisfaction
of seeing the Englishmen's faces brighten. It is true she only spoke a few
words to begin the conversation, but the pleasant smile they gave her
banished all her nervousness.

"They understand her perfectly," said the manager.

"Well, then, ask them," said M. Vulfran, "why they have come a week
earlier than the date arranged for their coming, because it so happens
that the engineer who was to direct them in their work, and who speaks
English, is away for a few days."

Perrine translated the phrase accurately, and one of the men answered at
once.

"They say," she said, "that they have been to Cambrai and put up some
machinery, and they got through with their work quicker than they thought
they would, so they came here direct instead of going back to England and
returning again."

"Whose machinery were they working on at Cambrai?" asked M. Vulfran.

"It was for the M. M. and E. Aveline and Company."

"What were the machines?"

The question was put and the reply was given in English, but Perrine
hesitated.

"Why do you hesitate?" asked M. Vulfran, impatiently.

"Because it's a word used in the business that I don't know," answered
Perrine, timidly.

"Say the word in English."

"Hydraulic mangle."

"That's all right," said M. Vulfran. He repeated the word in English,
but with quite a different accent from the English mechanics, which
explains why he had not understood them when they had spoken the words.

"You see that Aveline and Company are ahead of us," he said, turning to
his manager. "We have no time to los