offender."

All this time, as may be imagined, Mr Bunker had been in a state of high
mystification at his friend's unusual adroitness.

"How the deuce did he get hold of her?" he said to himself.

In the next pause the Baron solved the riddle.

"You vil vunder, Bonker," he said, "how I did gom to know ze Lady
Grillyer."

"I envied, certainly," replied his friend, with a side glance at the now
purring Countess.

"She vas of my introdogtions, bot till after you vent out zis morning I
did not lairn her name. Zen I said to myself, 'Ze sun shines, Himmel is
kind! Here now is ze fair Lady Grillyer--my introdogtion!' and zo zat is
how, you see."

"To think of the Baron being here and our only finding each other out by
chance!" said the Countess.

"By a fortunate providence for me!" exclaimed the Baron, fervently.

"Baron," said the Countess, trying hard to look severe, "you must really
keep some of these nice speeches for my daughter. Which reminds me, I
wonder where she can be?"

"Ach, here she goms!" cried the Baron.

"Why, how did you know her?" asked the Countess.

"I--I did see her last night at dinnair," explained the Baron, turning red.

"Ah, of course, I remember," replied the Countess, in a matter-of-fact
tone; but her motherly eye was sharp, and already it began to look on the
highly eligible Rudolph with more approval than ever.

"My daughter Alicia, the Baron Rudolph von Blitzenberg, Mr Bunker," she
said the next moment.

The Baron went nearly double as he bowed, and the flourish of his hat
stirred the dust on the esplanade. Mr Bunker's salutation was less
profound, but his face expressed an almost equal degree of interested
respect. Her mother thought that when one of the gentlemen was a nobleman
with an indefinite number of thousands a-year and the other a person of so
much discrimination, Lady Alicia's own bow might have been a trifle less
reserved. But then even the most astute mother cannot know the reasons for
everything.

CHAPTER III.

"Alicia," said the Countess, "it was really a most fortunate coincidence
our meeting the Baron at St Egbert's."

She paused for a reply and looked expectantly at her daughter. It was not
the first time in the course of the morning that Lady Alicia had listened
to similar observations, and perhaps that was why she answered somewhat
listlessly, "Yes, wasn't it?"

The Countess frowned, and continued with emphasis, "I