me; I am not really in such a hurry. I am quite at
your disposal."

"It is a question of honour," muttered Jacques de Wissant, "a question
of honour, Admiral, or I should not trouble you with the matter."

Admiral de Saint Vilquier leant forward, but Jacques de Wissant avoided
meeting the shrewd, searching eyes.

"The honour of a naval family is involved." The Mayor of Falaise was now
speaking in a low, pleading voice.

The Admiral stiffened. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "So you have been asked to
intercede with me on behalf of some young scapegrace. Well, who is it?
I'll look into the matter to-morrow morning. I really cannot think of
anything to-day but of this terrible business----"

"----Admiral, it concerns this business."

"The loss of the _Neptune_? In what way can the honour of a naval family
be possibly involved in such a matter?" There was a touch of hauteur as
well as of indignant surprise in the fine old seaman's voice.

"Admiral," said Jacques de Wissant deliberately, "there was--there is--a
woman on board the _Neptune_."

"A woman in the _Neptune_? That is quite impossible!" The Admiral got up
from his chair. "It is one of our strictest regulations that no stranger
be taken on board a submarine without a special permit from the Minister
of Marine, countersigned by an admiral. No such permit has been issued
for many months. In no case would a woman be allowed on board. Commander
Dupre is far too conscientious, too loyal, an officer to break such a
regulation."

"Commander Dupre," said Jacques de Wissant in a low, bitter tone, "was
not too conscientious or too loyal an officer to break that regulation,
for there is, I repeat it, a woman in the _Neptune_."

The Admiral sat down again. "But this is serious--very serious," he
muttered.

He was thinking of the effect, not only at home but abroad, of such a
breach of discipline.

He shook his head with a pained, angry gesture--"I understand what
happened," he said at last. "The woman was of course poor Dupre's"--and
then something in Jacques de Wissant's pallid face made him substitute,
for the plain word he meant to have used, a softer, kindlier
phrase--"poor Dupre's _bonne amie_," he said.

"I am advised not," said Jacques de Wissant shortly. "I am told that the
person in question is a young lady."

"Do you mean an unmarried girl?" asked the Admiral. There was great
curiosity and sincere relief in his voice.

"I beg of you not to ask me, Admiral! The