made him give them information about
Germany, and especially about Berlin, which they intended visiting; in
return they told him all about the north coast of France, with its
watering-places, big and little, which they had "done" last year from
Cherbourg to Dunkirk.

Strolling the next afternoon with his new acquaintances along the
Digue, a few steps in front of them he saw a lady, plainly and darkly
but most elegantly dressed leaning on the arm of a tall man. They
walked slowly, and were evidently lost in contemplation of the softly
rolling sea. At first he paid but little attention to the couple, and
would not have noticed them at all had not the Digue been very empty of
visitors just then. But, strange to say, his gaze kept wandering from
the oily surface of the sea, and the steamers and fishing-smacks
plowing their way through it, to the slender figure of the lady, who
looked small beside her tall companion; and there gradually dawned upon
him a dim idea that that slight figure reminded him of somebody--that
he had seen those delicate contours, those graceful proportions, that
light and gliding gait before. Without hastening his steps he soon
overtook them, and recognized at the first glance that it was Loulou.
She too turned her head involuntarily to look at the passing trio. As
she caught sight of Wilhelm a sudden pallor overspread her face, and
with an unconscious movement of terror she dropped her companion's arm.
Both stood stockstill, as if suddenly deprived of the power of motion,
and gazed at one another wide-eyed. The silent encounter only lasted a
few seconds, but the play on both sides was so marked that it could not
fail to excite the attention of the lookers-on. Loulou's attendant
cavalier looked in surprise from her to him, and evidently thought the
proceedings most extraordinary. But before he had time to ask for an
explanation, Wilhelm had turned on his heel and was walking rapidly
back to the hotel. The two Americans followed him in silence. Nothing
in the scene had escaped them, but as true Anglo-Saxons they had too
much native reserve to ask for a confidence which was not offered them.

Wilhelm was most painfully affected by the encounter, and not for
worlds would he risk the possibility of meeting again with the
unfortunate woman and the man to whom she now was bound in sinful
union. That same day he took leave of his Americans, and left Ostend
early the next morning; at once fearful and reliev