them was locked. He tried it gently. Yes, it was.

And Zara heard him from her side, and stiffened in her bed with all the
expression of a fierce wolfhound putting its hackles up.

Yes, the danger of the ways of men was not over! If she had not
unconsciously remembered to lock the door when she had returned from her
terrifying adventure he would have come in!

So these two thrilled with different emotions and trembled, and there
was the locked harrier between them. And then Tristram rang for his
valet and ordered his bath. He would dress quickly, and ask casually if
she would breakfast in the sitting-room. It was so late, almost eleven,
and they could have it at twelve upstairs--not in the restaurant as he
had yesterday intended. He must find out about the roses; he could not
endure to pass the whole day in wonder and doubt.

And Zara, too, started dressing. It was better under the circumstances
to be armed at all points, and she felt safer and calmer with Henriette
in the room.

So a few minutes before twelve they met in the sitting-room.

Her whole expression was on the defensive: he saw that at once.

The waiters would be coming in with the breakfast soon. Would there be
time to talk to her, or had he better postpone it until they were
certain to be alone? He decided upon this latter course, and just said a
cold "Good morning," and turned to the _New York Herald_ and looked at
the news.

Zara felt more reassured.

So they presently sat down to their breakfast, each ready to play the
game.

They spoke of the theaters--the one they had arranged to go to this
Saturday night was causing all Paris to laugh.

"It will be a jolly good thing to laugh," Tristram said--and Zara
agreed.

He made no allusion to the events of the night before, and she hardly
spoke at all. And at last the repast was over, and the waiters had left
the room.

Tristram got up, after his coffee and liqueur, but he lit no cigar; he
went to one of the great windows which look out on the Colonne Vendome,
and then he came back. Zara was sitting upon the heliotrope Empire sofa
and had picked up the paper again.

He stood before her, with an expression upon his face which ought to
have melted any woman.

"Zara," he said softly, "I want you to tell me, why did you come into my
room?"

Her great eyes filled with startled horror and surprise, and her white
cheeks grew bright pink with an exquisite flush.

"I?"--and she clenched her hand