Chateau or downtown, won't you let me take you in my car?
It's at the door."

"If you think you dare to risk your reputation, I'll be glad to accept,"
she replied.

"Is it a risk?" he asked.

"That is for you to judge," as he put her in.

"The Chateau?" he inquired;--and when she nodded he leaned forward and
gave the order.

"I was surprised to see you--" he began.

"Why pretend you were surprised to see me?" she laughed. "You were not;
nor am I to see you. We are too old foes to pretend as to the
non-essentials--when each knows them. The cards are on the table, Guy,
play them open."

"How many cards are on the table?" he asked.

"All of mine."

"Then it's double dummy--with a blind deck on the side."

"Whose side?" she flashed back.

"Yours!" he returned pleasantly.

"What am I concealing?" she demanded.

"I don't know. If I did--it would be easier for me."

"The one thing I haven't told you, I can't tell you: the precise
character of the business that brings me here. I've told you all I
know--and broken my oath to do it. I can't well do more, Guy."

"No, you can't well do more," Harleston conceded. "And I can't well do
less under all the--admitted circumstances; inferentially and directly
admitted."

"Why did you--butt in?" she asked. "Why didn't you let the cab, and the
letter, and well enough alone?"

"It was so mysterious; and so full of possibilities," he smiled. "And
when I did it, I didn't know that you were interested."

"And it would have made you all the more prying if you had known," she
retorted.

"Possibly! I've never yet heard that personal feelings entered into the
diplomatic secret service--and no more have you, my lady."

"Personal feelings!" she smiled, and shrugged his answer aside. "When
did you first know that I was concerned in this affair?"

"When I saw you in the Chateau," he replied--there was no obligation on
him to mention the photograph.

"Which was?" she asked.

"The evening I met you in Peacock Alley. How long then had you been
here?"

"Two days!"

"And not a word to me?"

"'Personal feelings do not enter into the diplomatic secret service,'"
she quoted mockingly.

"Precisely," he agreed, "We understand each other and the game."

It served his purpose not to notice the mock in her tones. He very well
understood what it imported and what prompted it. For the first time
the tigress had disclosed her claws. Hitherto it was always the soft
caress and the