clasped her hands in a charming gesture of helpless appeal and the
ladies looked at one another in horrified silence. What unheard of thing
would this impossible girl propose next! They would be thankful when
they saw her once more safely embarked for the "land of the free," and
out from under their chaperonage, they hoped, forever. They realized
that she was quite beyond their restraining powers. Had she no sense of
decency at all?

The door opened, callers were announced, and the day was saved.

Opal straightened up, put on what she called her "best dignity" and
comported herself in so very well-bred and amiable a manner that her
cousins quite forgave all her past delinquencies and smiled approval
upon the charming courtesy she extended to their guests. She could be
_such_ a lady when she would! No one could resist her! And yet they felt
themselves sitting upon the crater of a volcano liable to erupt at any
moment. One never felt quite safe with Opal.

But, much to their surprise and relief, everything went beautifully, and
the guests departed, delighted with Lady Alice's "charming American
cousin, so sweet, so dainty, so witty, so brilliant, and altogether
lovely--really quite a dear, you know!"

But for all that, Lady Alice Mordaunt and Lady Fletcher were far from
feeling easy over their guest, and ardently wished that the girl's
father would cut short his visit to France and return to take her back
with him to America. And while these two worthy ladies worried and
fretted, Opal Ledoux laughed and dreamed.

And in a big mansion over in Berkeley Square Monsieur Paul Zalenska
wondered--and listened.

CHAPTER IV

It was a whole two weeks after the Boy's experience at the theatre, and
though the echoes of that mysterious voice still rang through all his
dreams at night, and most of his waking hours, he had not heard its lilt
again.

Paul Verdayne smiled to himself to note the youngster's sudden interest
in society. He had not--strange as it may seem--been told a word of the
experience, but he was not curious. He certainly knew the world, if
anyone knew it, and though he was sure he recognized the symptoms, he
had too much tact to ask, "Who is the girl?"

"Let the Boy have his little secrets," he thought, remembering his own
callow days. "They will do him good."

And though the Boy felt an undue sense of guilt, he continued to keep
his lips closed and his eyes and ears open, though it often seemed so