ct
upon Bernadine, rose to leave, that the mask was for a moment lifted. De
Grost had called for his bill and paid it. The two men strolled out
together.

"Baron," Bernadine said suavely, linking his arm through the other man's
as they passed into the foyer, "there are times when candour even
amongst enemies becomes an admirable quality."

"Those times, I imagine," de Grost answered grimly, "are rare. Besides,
who is to tell the real thing from the false?"

"You do less than justice to your perceptions, my friend," Bernadine
declared, smiling.

De Grost merely shrugged his shoulders. Bernadine persisted.

"Come," he continued, "since you doubt me, let me be the first to give
you a proof that on this occasion, at any rate, I am candour itself. You
had a purpose in lunching at the Savoy to-day. That purpose I have
discovered by accident. We are both interested in those people."

The Baron de Grost shook his head slowly.

"Really----" he began.

"Let me finish," Bernadine insisted. "Perhaps when you have heard all
that I have to say you may change your attitude. We are interested in
the same people, but in different ways. If we both move from opposite
directions our friend will vanish. He is clever enough at disappearing,
as he has proved before. We do not want the same thing from him, I am
convinced of that. Let us move together and make sure that he does not
evade us."

"Is it an alliance which you are proposing?" de Grost asked, with a
quiet smile.

"Why not?" Bernadine answered. "Enemies have united before to-day
against a common foe."

De Grost looked across the palm court to where the two people who formed
the subject of their discussion were sitting in a corner, both smoking,
both sipping some red-coloured liqueur.

"My dear Bernadine," he said, "I am much too afraid of you to listen any
more. You fancy because this man's presence here was an entire surprise
to you, and because you find me already on his track, that I know more
than you do, and that an alliance with me would be to your advantage.
You would try to persuade me that your object with him would not be my
object. Listen! I am afraid of you--you are too clever for me. I am
going to leave you in sole possession."

De Grost's tone was final and his bow valedictory. Bernadine watched him
stroll in a leisurely way through the foyer, exchanging greetings here
and there with friends; watched him enter the cloak-room, from which he
emerged with