im the Grand
Hotel, Paris.

"If anything comes to-day, I'll bring it on," said Laing.

"Yes, do; we shall have no address before Paris," answered General
Bellairs.

They drove off, and Laing, feeling rather solitary, returned to his
cigar. An hour later the waiter brought him two telegrams, one for Dora
and one for Charlie, he looked at the addresses.

"Just too late, by Jove! All right, garcon, I'll take 'em," and he
thrust them into the pocket of his flannel jacket. And when, after
lunch, he could not stand the dullness any longer and went to Monte
Carlo, he left the telegrams in the discarded flannels, where they lay
till--the time when they were discovered. For Mr. Laing clean forgot
all about them!

CHAPTER VI

A MAN WITH A THEORY

Even Miss Bussey was inclined to think that all had happened for the
best. John's eloquence had shaken her first disapprobation; the visible
happiness of the persons chiefly concerned pleaded yet more
persuasively. What harm, after all, was done, except for a little
trouble and a little gossip? To these Mary and John were utterly
indifferent. At first they had been rather shy in referring, before one
another, to their loves, but custom taught them to mention the names
without confusion, and ere long they had exchanged confidences as to
their future plans. John's arrangement was obviously the more prudent
and becoming. He discountenanced Mary's suggestion of an unannounced
descent on Cannes, and persuaded her to follow his example and inform
her lover that she would await news from him in Paris. They were to put
up at the European, and telegrams there from Cannes would rind them on
and after April 28th. All this valuable information was contained in
the dispatches, which lay, with their priceless messages, on the said
April 28th, in Mr. Arthur Laing's flannel jacket, inside his
portmanteau, on the way to Paris.

Paris claims to be the centre of the world, and if it be, the world has
a very good centre. Anyhow Paris becomes, from this moment, the centre
of this drama. Not only was Arthur Laing being whirled there by the
Nice express, and Miss Bussey's party proceeding thither by the eleven
o'clock train from Victoria--Mary laughed as she thought it might have
been her honeymoon she was starting on--but the Bellairs and their
friends were heading for the same point. Miss Bussey's party had the
pleasanter journey; they were all of one mind; Miss Bussey was eager to
reach Pa