l in
France to a hospital in England, Peggy, armed with all kinds of
passports and recommendations, and a very fixed, personal sanctified
idea, was crossing the Channel on her way to Paris and Jeanne.

* * * * *

And, after all, it was no wild-goose chase, but a very simple matter.
An urbane, elderly person at the British Embassy performed certain
telephonic gymnastics. At the end:

"_Merci, merci. Adieu!_"

He turned to her.

"A representative from the Prefecture of Police will wait on you at
your hotel at ten o'clock to-morrow morning."

The official called, took notes, and confidently assured her that he
would obtain the address of Mademoiselle Jeanne Bossiere within
twelve hours.

"But how, monsieur, are you going to do it?" asked Peggy.

"Madame," said he, "in spite of the war, the telegraphic, telephonic,
and municipal systems of France work in perfect order--to say nothing
of that of the police. Frelus, I think, is the name of the place she
started from?"

At eight o'clock in the evening, after her lonely dinner in the great
hotel, the polite official called again. She met him in the lounge.

"Madame," said he, "I have the pleasure to inform you that
Mademoiselle Jeanne Bossiere, late of Frelus, is living in Paris at
743^bis Boulevard Port Royal, and spends all her days at the
succursale of the French Red Cross in the Rue Vaugirard."

"Have you seen her and told her?"

"No, madame, that did not come within my instructions."

"I am infinitely grateful to you," said Peggy.

"_Il n'y a pas de quoi_, madame. I perform the tasks assigned to me
and am only too happy, in this case, to have been successful."

"But, monsieur," said Peggy, feeling desperately lonely in Paris, and
pathetically eager to talk to a human being, even in her rusty Vevey
school French, "haven't you wondered why I've been so anxious to find
this young lady?"

"If we began to wonder," he replied with a laugh, "at the things which
happen during the war, we should be so bewildered that we shouldn't be
able to carry on our work. Madame," said he, handing her his card, "if
you should have further need of me in the matter, I am always at your
service."

He bowed profoundly and left her.

Peggy stayed at the Ritz because, long ago, when her parents had
fetched her from Vevey and had given her the one wonderful fortnight
in Paris she had ever known, they had chosen this dignified and not
inexpensive