rd the stairway. "I knew that," he said.

"Ah? You know so much? After staying away so long?... We began to doubt
it."

She came to plant herself before him, and the effect of her politeness
was like a bludgeon.

"In that case be kind enough to sit, Monsieur Bibi-Ri. Dear little
Monsieur Bibi-Ri: we have missed you! Be seated. You bring your pockets
full of news, it seems."

But it seemed on the other hand, not so. I saw my companion brace
himself. Evidently this was his stage-play: the ordeal he had now to
meet.

"You must excuse me, Madame. I cannot remain and I have no news....
Except that I drop this business on the spot. Like a live coal,
Madame!"

His whimsy might have disarmed any other.

"I have done my best with Zelie. Sad! Somehow she fails to perceive any
longer my true charm.... You had sent me mysterious word, Madame, of
some danger to which you said she was drifting. Well--seeing her in the
public market to-day I sought to question her: at the least to give her
brotherly advice. Madame--she repulsed me. Like that! Would neither talk
nor listen. Said we were watched. Said it was not safe.

"Sapristi!... You can believe I was ready to quit then and there! But
presently I found a better reason--if I needed one, Madame. For casting
about, perplexed as I was, of a sudden I recognized--can you guess? Why
the man! The individual you expected to send me against, I imagine. From
whom I am supposed to guard her, perhaps! I saw him.

"After that: enough and many thanks!" he laughed, with a catch in his
throat. "No place for Bibi! Finished. Rien ne va plus!... For who am I
to chase any maid so unwilling? And at the same time who am I and what
should I be doing--in my present station, Madame--to cross the little
harmless fancies of such a personage?... It was M. de Nou!" he cried.

Still she made no move.

"And so--Bibi-Ri retires," he concluded, unsteadily, edging for his
exit. "I withdraw! You can find someone better fitted. My time is up. My
ship sails soon. I will not need to come again, I think. In parting--"

"What!" It was like the break of a banking storm. "What did you sing me
there? 'Not come again?' Forty devils! Do you know if you hadn't come
to-night in answer to my message I would have had you haled by the
leg?... Why you two sous' worth! You think to employ your sneaking
pickpocket tricks on me? To decamp with the prize I taught you to use:
and pay nothing for it?"

There was incredulity