e_.'"
"_Mais c'est vrai, ca!_" he said doggedly.
"Not always," she replied; "or perhaps not always in the usual sense. It
is true that I am going to Zurich to meet some one, but it is so very
innocent when a woman goes '_cherchant la femme_,' and, as I told you
before, it is a woman that I go to meet, or, rather, it is a girl."
"Are you sure?" he asked suspiciously.
"You don't believe my word yet, do you?"
"I did not say that."
"No, but really you do not."
He gave a slight shrug.
"My friend is an Irish girl," Rosina went on placidly. "I do love her
so. We shall have such a good time being together next week."
"You are sure that she is not English?" the man asked, with a little
touch of sarcasm in his inflection.
"If you could hear her speak you could tell that from her accent."
Von Ibn took out his case and lit another cigarette.
"What hotel do you go at in Zurich?" he asked presently.
"I shall go wherever my friend is."
"Where is she?"
"I don't know; I write her _Poste Restante_. She has been travelling for
a long time with a Russian friend,--a lady," she added, with a jerk.
"I hope you will go to the Victoria," Von Ibn said slowly; "that is
where I always have stay in Zurich."
"So that we may have our dining-room souvenir in common, I suppose?"
"It is a very nice place," he cried hotly; "it is not at all common! It
is one of the best hotels in Zurich."
She hastily interposed an explanation of the error in his comprehension
of her meaning, and by the time that he understood, the lights of
Lucerne were hazing the darkness, while the Rigi and Pilate had each
hung out their rope ladder of stars.
"What time do you travel in the morning?" he asked then, turning his
eyes downward upon her face.
"By the first express; it goes, I believe, about eight o'clock."
"I shall not be awake," he said gloomily.
"I shall not be, either; but Ottillie will get me aboard somehow."
"If it was noon that you go, I should certainly come to the Gare," he
said thoughtfully; then he reflected for a short space, and added
eagerly, "why do you not go later, and make an excursion by Zug; it is
just on your way, and a so interesting journey."
"I know Zug, and the lake too; I've coached all through there."
"Then it would not again interest you?"
"No; I want to go straight to Molly as fast as I can."
"To Molli! Where is that? You said to Zurich you went."
She laughed and explained.
"Mol
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