the adjacent bedroom, and the
silence was absolute. Standing up in the bath, Sonia Danidoff swept her
arms round in a circle to feel for any obstacle. Her touch met nothing.
She drew out one foot, and then the other, sprang towards the chair on
which she had left her dressing-gown, slipped into it with feverish
haste, slid her feet into her slippers, stood motionless for just a
second and then, with sudden decision, moved to the switch by the door
and turned on the light.

The man had gone from the bathroom, but taking two steps towards her
bedroom Sonia Danidoff saw him smiling at her from the far end of that
room.

"Sir," she said, "this--pleasantry--has lasted long enough. You must go.
You shall, you shall!"

"Shall?" the stranger echoed. "That is a word that is not often used to
me. But you are forgiven for not knowing that, Princess. I forgot for
the moment that I have not been presented to you. But what is in your
mind now?"

Between them was a little escritoire, on the top of which was lying the
tiny inlaid revolver that Sonia Danidoff always carried when she went
out at night. Could she but get that into her hands it would be a potent
argument to induce this stranger to obey her. The Princess also knew
that in the drawer of that escritoire which she could actually see half
open, she had placed, only a few minutes before going in to her bath, a
pocket-book filled with bank-notes for a hundred and twenty thousand
francs, money she had withdrawn from the strong-room of the hotel that
very morning in order to meet some bills next day. She looked at the
drawer and wondered if the pocket-book was still there, or if this
mysterious admirer of hers was only a vulgar hotel thief after all. The
man had followed her eyes to the revolver.

"That is an unusual knick-knack to find in a lady's room, Princess," and
he sprang in front of her as she was taking a step towards the
escritoire, and took possession of the revolver. "Do not be alarmed," he
added, noticing her little gesture of terror. "I would not do you an
injury for anything in the world. I shall be delighted to give this back
to you in a minute, but first let me render it harmless." He deftly
slipped the six cartridges out of the barrel and then handed the now
useless weapon to the Princess with a gallant little bow. "Do not laugh
at my excess of caution: but accidents happen so easily!"

It was in vain that the Princess tried to get near her escritoire to
a