same hotel with themselves,
and that he believed he was downstairs.

'I think I can do no better than send for him,' said she. 'He may be
able to throw some light upon the matter of that telegram.'

She rang and despatched the waiter for the young man in question, De
Stancy almost visibly trembling for the result. But he opened the town
directory which was lying on a table, and affected to be engrossed in
the names.

Before Dare was shown in she said to her uncle, 'Perhaps you will speak
to him for me?'

Mr. Power, looking up from the paper he was reading, assented to her
proposition. Dare appeared in the doorway, and the waiter retired. Dare
seemed a trifle startled out of his usual coolness, the message having
evidently been unexpected, and he came forward somewhat uneasily.

'Mr. Dare, we are anxious to know something of Miss Power's architect;
and Captain De Stancy tells us you have seen him lately,' said Mr. Power
sonorously over the edge of his newspaper.

Not knowing whether danger menaced or no, or, if it menaced, from what
quarter it was to be expected, Dare felt that honesty was as good as
anything else for him, and replied boldly that he had seen Mr. Somerset,
De Stancy continuing to cream and mantle almost visibly, in anxiety at
the situation of the speaker.

'And where did you see him?' continued Mr. Power.

'In the Casino at Monte Carlo.'

'How long did you see him?'

'Only for half an hour. I left him there.'

Paula's interest got the better of her reserve, and she cut in upon her
uncle: 'Did he seem in any unusual state, or in trouble?'

'He was rather excited,' said Dare.

'And can you remember when that was?'

Dare considered, looked at his pocket-book, and said that it was on the
evening of April the twenty-second.

The answer had a significance for Paula, De Stancy, and Charlotte, to
which Abner Power was a stranger. The telegraphic request for money,
which had been kept a secret from him by his niece, because of his
already unfriendly tone towards Somerset, arrived on the morning of the
twenty-third--a date which neighboured with painfully suggestive nicety
upon that now given by Dare.

She seemed to be silenced, and asked no more questions. Dare having
furbished himself up to a gentlemanly appearance with some of his recent
winnings, was invited to stay on awhile by Paula's uncle, who, as became
a travelled man, was not fastidious as to company. Being a youth of the
world, Dare