rection of Mars-la-Tour.

About a mile from Lerouville she came to the cross-roads, the one to the
south leading over the hills to Vigneulles, while the one to the north
joined the highway to Longuyon. For a moment she paused, then turning
into the latter road, which at that point was little more than a byway,
hurried on until she came to the fringe of a wood, where, upon her
approach, a man in dark grey tweeds came forth to meet her with swinging
gait.

It was Walter Fetherston.

He strode quickly in her direction, and when they met he held her small
hand in his and for a moment gazed into her dark eyes without uttering a
word.

"At last!" he cried. "I was afraid that you had not received my
message--that it might have been intercepted."

"I got it early this morning," was her reply, her cheeks flushing with
pleasure; "but I was unable to get away before my father and Blanche went
out. They pressed me to go with them, so I had to plead a headache."

"I am so glad we've met," Fetherston said. "I have been here in the
vicinity for days, yet I feared to come near you lest your father should
recognise me."

"But why are you here?" she inquired, strolling slowly at his side. "I
thought you were in London."

"I'm seldom in London," he responded. "Nowadays I am constantly on the
move."

"Travelling in search of fresh material for your books, I suppose? I read
in a paper the other day that you never describe a place in your stories
without first visiting it. If so, you must travel a great deal," the girl
remarked.

"I do," he answered briefly. "And very often I travel quickly."

"But why are you here?"

"For several reasons--the chief being to see you, Enid."

For a moment the girl did not reply. This man's movements so often
mystified her. He seemed ubiquitous. In one single fortnight he had sent
her letters from Paris, Stockholm, Hamburg, Vienna and Constanza. His
huge circle of friends was unequalled. In almost every city on the
Continent he knew somebody, and he was a perfect encyclopaedia of travel.
His strange reticence, however, always increased the mystery surrounding
him. Those vague whispers concerning him had reached her ears, and she
often wondered whether half she heard concerning him was true.

If a man prefers not to speak of himself or of his doings, his enemies
will soon invent some tale of their own. And thus it was in Walter's
case. Men had uttered foul calumnies concerning him merely becau