"Don't pick the boy to pieces. Give him a chance. So far he
has asked nothing from us, but offers everything. He's a grateful fellow
and is anxious to help you girls carry out your ambitious plans. That is
how I read him, and I think it is absurd to prejudge him in the way you
are doing."

The party broke up, the Stantons and Weldons going to their rooms. Beth
also rose.

"Are you coming to bed, Patsy?" she inquired.

"Not just now," her cousin replied. "Between us, we've rubbed Uncle
John's fur the wrong way and he won't get composed until he has
smoked his good-night cigar. I'll sit with him in this corner and
keep him company."

So the little man and his favorite niece were left together, and he did
not seem in the least ruffled as he lit his cigar and settled down in a
big chair, with Patsy beside him, to enjoy it.

CHAPTER XIV

ISIDORE LE DRIEUX

Perhaps the cigar was half gone when Patsy gave a sudden start and
squeezed Uncle John's hand, which she had been holding in both her own.

"What is it, my dear?"

"The man I told you of. There he is, just across the lobby. The man with
the gray clothes and gray hair."

"Oh, yes; the one lighting a cigar."

"Precisely."

Uncle John gazed across the lobby reflectively. The stranger's eyes roved
carelessly around the big room and then he moved with deliberate steps
toward their corner. He passed several vacant chairs and settees on his
way and finally paused before a lounging-chair not six feet distant from
the one occupied by Mr. Merrick.

"Pardon me; is this seat engaged, sir?" he asked.

"No," replied Uncle John, not very graciously, for it was a deliberate
intrusion.

The stranger sat down and for a time smoked his cigar in silence. He was
so near them that Patsy forbore any conversation, knowing he would
overhear it.

Suddenly the man turned squarely in their direction and addressed them.

"I hope you will pardon me, Mr. Merrick, if I venture to ask a
question," said he.

"Well, sir?"

"I saw you talking with Mr. Jones this evening--A. Jones, you know, who
says he came from Sangoa."

"Didn't he?" demanded the old gentleman.

The stranger smiled.

"Perhaps; once on a time; allowing such a place exists. But his last
journey was here from Austria."

"Indeed!"

Mr. Merrick and Patsy were both staring at the man incredulously.

"I am quite sure of that statement, sir; but I cannot prove it, as yet."

"Ah! I thought not."

Patsy