ey would be an ordinary American millionaire
and millionairess, bow-fronted, self-important creatures; the old man
with a diamond stud like a headlight, the old lady afraid to take cold
if she left off an extra row of pearls. In our desperate state, anything
seemed fair in love or war with such hard, worth-their-weight-in-gold
people. But I ought to have known that a man like Jim Beckett couldn't
have such parents! I ought to have known they wouldn't be in the common
class of millionaires of any country; and that whatever their type they
would be unique.

Well, I _hadn't_ known. Their kindness, their dear humanness, their
simplicity, overwhelmed me as the gifts of shields and bracelets from
the Roman warriors overwhelmed treacherous Tarpeia. And when they began
delicately begging me to be their adopted daughter--the very thing I'd
prayed for to the devil!--I felt a hundred times wickeder than if Jim
hadn't set me on a high pedestal, where they wished to keep me with
their money, their love, as offerings.

Whether I should have broken down and confessed everything, or brazened
it out in spite of all if I'd been left alone to decide, I shall never
know. For just then the door opened, and Brian came into the room.

CHAPTER V

Why Brian's coming should make all the difference may puzzle you, Padre,
but I'll explain.

Ours is an amateurish hotel, especially since the war. Any one who
happens to have the time or inclination runs it: or if no one has time
it runs itself. Consequently mistakes are made. But what can you expect
for eight francs a day, with _pension_?

I said that a very young youth brought up the news of the Becketts'
arrival. He'd merely announced that "_un monsieur et une dame_" had
called. Apparently they had given no names, no cards. But in truth there
were cards, which had been mislaid, or in other words left upon the desk
in the _bureau_, with the numbers of both our rooms scrawled on them in
pencil. Nobody was there at the time, but when the concierge came back
(he is a sort of unofficial understudy for the mobilized manager) he saw
the cards and sent them upstairs. They were taken to Brian and the names
read aloud to him. He supposed, from vague information supplied by the
_garcon_ (it was a _garcon_ this time) that I wished him to come and
join me in the _salon_ with my guests. He hated the thought of meeting
strangers (the name "Beckett" meant nothing to him), but if he were
wanted by hi