But it couldn't have been only tosh you were talking," the girl persisted,
"because--_I_ remember--you were so keen about keeping what you said
secret, you spoke the strangest language together most of the time. I could
hear every word"--she had already explained about the freak acoustics of
the Cafe des Exiles--"and not one meant anything to me."

"Stupid of me, but I simply can't think what it could have been."

"I can--now."

Karslake looked askance at Sofia.

"Since I've heard so much Chinese spoken by the servants--now I come to
think of it"--Sofia's eyes grew bright with triumph--"I'm sure it must have
been Chinese you were speaking to the man I mean."

"Impossible," Karslake pronounced calmly.

"But you do know Chinese, don't you?"

"Not a syllable."

Sofia opened her lips to protest, but delayed to study Karslake's face
intently. He didn't try to escape her scrutiny, he even seemed to court it;
but there was a curious, quizzical look in his eyes, those half-smiling
lips had a whimsical droop.

"Mr. Karslake!" Sofia announced, severely, "you're fibbing."

"Nice thing to say to me."

"You do speak Chinese--confess."

"My dear Princess Sofia," Karslake protested: "if I had known one word of
Chinese I could never have landed my job with your father."

"Why not?"

"He expressly stipulated that I should be ignorant of that language."

"What a silly condition to make!"

"Still, I daresay Prince Victor had his reasons."

"I can't imagine what ..."

"Possibly preferred a secretary who couldn't understand everything he said
to the servants. I've never pretended to know all Prince Victor's secrets,
you know."

After a little pause Sofia asked gently: "Did you really need the job so
badly, Mr. Karslake?"

"To get it meant more to me than I can tell you--almost as much as to hold
on to it does to-day."

Sofia turned her eyes away at this, and for the rest of the ride--they were
homeward bound from a matinee, having dropped Sybil Waring at her flat in
Mayfair--kept her thoughts to herself.

Only the most perfunctory civilities passed between them, in fact, until
they had been ushered into the study by Nogam, who advised them that Prince
Victor had ordered tea to be served there and had promised to be home in
good time for it.

The tea service was already set out on a little table beside the fireplace
in that room of secrets, whose normal atmosphere of brooding gloom was now
the darker for the dee