cedar-tree,
beneath which their hostess was receiving her guests. A large woman with
a lazy smile was Mrs. Pouncefort, and wonderful dark eyes that were
seldom wholly revealed--a woman who took no pains to please and yet whose
charm was undeniable. Her monarchy was absolute and her courtiers many,
but other women looked at her askance, half-conscious of a veiled
antagonism. They were a little afraid of her also, though not one could
have said why, since no bitter word was ever heard to pass her lips.

She greeted Chris with a cold, limp hand. "So nice of you to come. I hope
you won't be bored. Ah, Mr. Mordaunt, how is Kellerton Old Park by this
time? I hardly recognized it the day I called. Rupert tells me you have
worked wonders inside as well as out."

"May I introduce our friend Monsieur Bertrand?" said Chris.

Bertrand brought his heels together and bowed low over the limp hand
transferred to his. Mrs. Pouncefort smiled.

"There is a fellow-countryman of yours here. Where has he gone? Ah, there
you are! Captain Rodolphe, let me introduce you to Mrs. Mordaunt and her
French friend Monsieur Bertrand."

She extended one finger to Noel while making the introduction, and at
once turned her attention elsewhere.

Chris found herself face to face with a heavy-browed man with an
overbearing demeanour and a mouth and chin that sneered perpetually
behind a waxed moustache and imperial. She stared at him for an instant
with a bewildered feeling of having seen him somewhere before. Then, as
she returned his bow, a stab of recognition pierced her, and she
remembered where.

It flashed into her mind like a picture thrown upon a screen--that scene
upon the sands of Valpre long, long ago, two men fighting with swords
that gleamed in the sunlight, a child drawing near with wondering eyes to
behold the conflict, and an unruly black terrier scampering to end it!

"I am delighted to make your acquaintance," declared Captain Rodolphe,
"and that of your friend--M. Bertrand?"

He uttered the name interrogatively. Bertrand bowed very slightly, very
stiffly, and was instantly erect again. "That is my name," he said, as he
looked the other straight in the eyes.

Captain Rodolphe was smiling. "I think we have not met before? It is
always a pleasure to meet a fellow-countryman in a strange land. That is
well understood, is it not, Mrs. Mordaunt?"

His smooth speech brought her back to a situation that was not without
serious diffi