rown upon
his face.

"Say, Sir Henry," he complained, "I don't quite understand this. Why,
I'd only got to go over to Draconmeyer there and stand and talk for a
moment, and he must have introduced me."

Hunterleys shook his head.

"Let me assure you," he said, "that Draconmeyer would have done nothing
of the sort. For one thing, we don't introduce over here as a matter of
course, as you do in America. And for another--well, I won't trouble you
with the other reason.... Look here, Lane, take my advice, there's a
sensible fellow. I am a man of the world, you know, and there are
certain situations in which one can make no mistake. If you are as hard
hit as you say you are, go for a cruise and get over it. Don't hang
around here. No good will come of it."

The young man set his teeth. He was looking very determined indeed.

"There isn't anything in this world, short of a bomb," he declared,
"which is going to blow me out of Monte Carlo before I have made the
acquaintance of Miss Grex!"

CHAPTER VII

THE EFFRONTERY OF RICHARD

Hunterleys took leave of his companion as soon as they arrived at the
roulette rooms.

"Take my advice, Lane," he said seriously. "Find something to occupy
your thoughts. Throw a few hundred thousand of your dollars away at the
tables, if you must do something foolish. You'll get into far less
trouble."

Richard made no direct reply. He watched Hunterleys depart and took up
his place opposite the door to await his sister's arrival. It was a
quarter to five before she appeared and found him waiting for her in the
doorway.

"Say, you're late, Flossie!" he grumbled. "I thought you were going to
be here soon after four."

She glanced at the little watch upon her wrist.

"How the time does slip away!" she sighed. "But really, Dicky, I am late
in your interests as much as anything. I have been paying a few calls. I
went out to the Villa Rosa to see some people who almost live here, and
then I met Lady Crawley and she made me go in and have some tea."

"Well?" he asked impatiently. "Well?"

She laid her fingers upon his arm and drew him into a less crowded part
of the room.

"Dicky," she confessed, "I don't seem to have had a bit of luck. The
Comtesse d'Hausson, who lives at the Villa Rosa, knows them and showed
me from the window the Villa Mimosa, where they live, but she would tell
me absolutely nothing about them. The villa is the finest in Monte
Carlo, and has always been ta