ey had skirted the wonderful bay and climbed the mountainous hill to
the frontier before Violet spoke. All the time Draconmeyer leaned back
by her side, perfectly content. A man of varied subtleties, he
understood and fully appreciated the intrinsic value of silence. Whilst
the Customs officer, however, was making out the deposit note for the
car, she turned to him.

"Will you tell me something, Mr. Draconmeyer?"

"Of course!"

"It is about my husband," she went on. "Henry isn't your friend--you
dislike one another, I know. You men seem to have a sort of freemasonry
which compels you to tell falsehoods about one another, but in this case
I am going to remind you that I have the greater claim, and I am going
to ask you for the sober truth. Henry has once or twice, during the last
few days, hinted to me that his presence in Monte Carlo just now has
some sort of political significance. He is very vague about it all, but
he evidently wants me to believe that he is staying here against his own
inclinations. Now I want to ask you a plain question. Is it likely that
he could have any business whatever to transact for the Government in
Monte Carlo? What I mean is, could there possibly be anything to keep
him in this place which for political reasons he couldn't tell me
about?"

"I can answer your question finally so far as regards any Government
business," Mr. Draconmeyer assured her. "Your husband's Party is in
Opposition. As a keen politician, he would not be likely to interest
himself in the work of his rival."

"You are quite sure," she persisted, "you are quite sure that he could
not have a mission of any sort?--that there isn't any meeting of
diplomatists here in which he might be interested?"

Mr. Draconmeyer smiled with the air of one listening to a child's
prattle.

"If I were not sure that you are in earnest--!" he began. "However, I
will just answer your question. Nothing of the sort is possible.
Besides, people don't come to Monte Carlo for serious affairs, you
know."

Her face hardened a little.

"I suppose," she said, "that you are quite sure of what you told me the
other evening about this young singer--Felicia Roche?"

"I should not allude to a matter of that sort," he declared, "unless I
had satisfied myself as to the facts. It is true that I owe nothing to
your husband and everything to you, or I should have probably remained
silent. As it is, all that I know is at your service. Felicia Roche is