mean that he is coming to your house to-night?" I asked.

"Exactly," Freddy answered. "We've a political reception,
semi-diplomatic. I saw our old friend only yesterday, and he reminded
me that he was coming."

"You're a brick, Freddy!" I answered. "I'll be round."

"You have not answered my question," he reminded me.

"I'll tell you later," I answered, and rang off.

I was at Maynard House very soon after eleven, and, after chatting for
a little while with my hostess, I hung around near the entrance,
watching the arrivals. About midnight His Excellency the Chinese
ambassador was announced, and I felt a little thrill of exultation. I
was right! The tall, powerful-looking man whom I saw bowing over my
cousin's hand was indeed the person whom I had seen with Delora a few
hours ago. I ran Freddy to ground, and presently I found myself also
bowing before His Excellency. He regarded me through his horn-rimmed
spectacles with a benign and pleasant expression. I had been in the
East, and I talked for a few moments upon the subjects which I thought
would interest him.

"Your Excellency, I dare say, is well acquainted with London," I
remarked, apropos of something he said.

"I know your great city only indifferently," he answered. "I am
always anxious to take the opportunity of seeing more of it."

"Last evening, for instance," I remarked, "Your Excellency was, I
think, exploring a very interesting neighborhood."

"Last evening," he repeated. "Let me think. No, not last evening,
Captain Rotherby! I was giving a little dinner at my own house."

I looked at him for a moment in silence. There was nothing to be
learned from his expression.

"I thought," I said, "that I saw your Excellency in a street near
Shaftesbury Avenue, leaving a small foreign restaurant,--the Cafe
Universel. Your Excellency was with a man named Delora."

Very slowly the ambassador shook his head.

"Not me!" he said. "Not me! I did dine with the younger members of the
Legation in Langham Place. What name did you say?"

"A man named Delora," I repeated.

Once more the ambassador shook his head, slowly and thoughtfully.

"Delora!" he repeated. "The name is unknown to me. There are many
others of my race in London now," he continued. "The costume, perhaps,
makes one seem like another to those who look and pass by."

I bowed very low. It was the most magnificently told lie to which I
had ever listened in my life! His Excellency smiled at me gra