self
was so astonished that she stepped plainly into view. Not less
astonished than herself, Bienville stopped stock-still, looked at her,
looked into the room behind her, looked at Derek with a long,
half-amused, comprehending stare, lifted his hat gravely, and passed on.

When he had gone there was a minute of dead silence. With parted lips
and awe-stricken eyes Diane gazed after him till he had spoken to the
clerk at the desk and passed on into the darker recesses of the hotel.
When she turned toward Derek he was smiling, with what she knew was an
effort to treat the situation lightly.

"Well, this time we've given him something to talk about," he laughed,
bravely.

She shrugged her shoulders and spread apart her hands with one of her
habitual, fatalistic gestures.

"I don't mind. He can't do me more harm than he's done already. It's not
of him that I'm thinking, but of Dorothea. She hasn't come."

"No, she hasn't come."

The fact had grown alarming, so much so as to make the incident of
Bienville's appearance seem in comparison a matter of little moment.
Diane remained on the threshold of her room, and Derek in the hail
outside, while, for mutual encouragement, they rehearsed once more the
list of predicaments in which the young people might have found
themselves without serious danger.

Diane was about to withdraw, when a man ran down the hall calling:

"The telephone!--for the gentleman!"

Derek started on a run, Diane following more slowly. When she reached
the office Derek had the receiver to his ear and was talking.

"Yes, Fulton. Go on. I hear.... Who has rung you up?... I didn't
catch ... Miss--who? Oh, Miss Marion Grimston. Yes?... In Philadelphia,
at the Hotel Belleville.... Yes; I understand... and Miss Dorothea is
with her.... Good!... Did she say how she got there?... Will explain
when we get back to New York to-morrow morning.... All right.... Yes,
to lunch.... She said Miss Dorothea was quite well, and satisfied with
her trip!... That's good.... Well, good-night, Fulton. Sorry to have
kept you up."

He put up the receiver and turned to Diane.

"Did you understand?"

"Perfectly. I think I know what has happened. I can guess."

"Then, I'll be hanged if I can. What is it?"

"I'll let them tell you that themselves. I'm too tired to say anything
more to-night."

She kept close to the office where the clerk was shutting books and
locking drawers preparatory to closing.

"You must let m