a detestable interview.

Juve-Vagualame remained below. He struck his forehead.

"Monsieur Henri!" he called.

"What?"

"The meeting place to-morrow?"

De Loubersac had just signalled to a taxi: he leaned over the parapet
and called to Juve-Vagualame, who had got no farther than the middle
of the steps:

"Why at half past three, in the garden, as usual!"

* * * * *

"Oh, ho!" said the old accordion player. "He will be furious! I shall
play him false--bound to--for how can I keep the appointment--confound
it! What garden? Whereabouts in it?" Then, as he regained the quay,
Juve laughed in his false white beard.

"What do I care? I snap my fingers at that rendezvous. I have
extracted from him what I wanted to know--it matters not a jot if I
never set eyes on him again! And ... now ... it is we two,
Bobinette!"

XIV

BEFORE A TOMB

"This is a surprise!"

Mademoiselle de Naarboveck stopped. She smiled up at Henri de
Loubersac.

"Do you know, I saw in this glass that you were following us," she
said, pointing to a mirror placed at an angle in a confectioner's shop
at the corner of rue Biot.

These artless remarks put the handsome lieutenant out of countenance:
he blushed hotly, but he pressed the little hand held out to him so
simply, and with such a look of frank pleasure. He stammered some
excuse for not having recognised her. He bowed pleasantly to
Wilhelmine's companion, Mademoiselle Berthe.

Wilhelmine turned to her.

"This meeting was not prearranged: it is one of pure chance." The tone
was defensive without a touch of the apologetic.

Mademoiselle Berthe smiled, and declared that she had not for a moment
supposed that the meeting had been prearranged.

De Loubersac gazed considerably at the two girls. Wilhelmine was
looking particularly pretty. Beneath her fur toque shone masses of her
pale gold hair, framing a charming little face. A long velvet coat
with ermine stole suggested the youthful contours of her slender
figure. Mademoiselle Berthe wore rough blue cloth, and a large hat
trimmed with wings, which set off her piquant face with its irregular
features and ruddy locks.

Wilhelmine and Henri de Loubersac strolled on together in the
direction of the Hippodrome. Mutual protestations of love were,
exchanged. Presently Wilhelmine asked:

"But what brought you in this direction?"

"Oh, I was going ... to pay a visit ... it is a piece of very good
l