e to offer
to assist, but he declared that he liked to pack himself, and this
occupied him the greater part of the morning.

Enid was also busy with her dresses, assisted by Blanche's Provencal
maid, Louise. About eleven o'clock, however, Jean tapped at her door and
said: "A peasant from Allamont, across the valley, has brought a letter,
mademoiselle. He says an English gentleman gave it to him to deliver to
you personally. He is downstairs."

In surprise the girl hurriedly descended to the servants' entrance, where
she found a sturdy, old, grey-bearded peasant, bearing a long, stout
stick. He raised his frayed cap politely and asked whether she were
Mademoiselle Orlebar.

Then, when she had replied in the affirmative, he drew from the breast of
his blouse a crumpled letter, saying: "The Englishman who has been
staying at the Lion d'Or at Allamont gave this to me at dawn to-day. I
was to give it only into mademoiselle's hands. There is no reply."

Enid tore open the letter eagerly and found the following words, written
hurriedly in pencil in Walter Fetherston's well-known scrawling hand--for
a novelist's handwriting is never of the best:

"Make excuse and induce your father to leave Conflans-Jarny at
once for Metz, travelling by Belgium for London. Accompany him. A
serious _contretemps_ has occurred which will affect you both if
you do not leave immediately on receipt of this. Heed this, I beg
of you. And remember, I am still your friend.
"WALTER."

For a moment she stood puzzled. "Did the Englishman say there was no
reply?" she asked.

"Yes, mademoiselle. He left the Lion d'Or just before eight, and drove
into Conflans with his luggage. The innkeeper told me that he is
returning suddenly to England. He received several telegrams in the
night, it appears."

"You know him, then?"

"Oh yes, mademoiselle. He came there to fish in the Longeau, and I have
been with him on several occasions."

Enid took a piece of "cent sous" from her purse and gave it to the old
man, then she returned to her room and, sending Louise below for
something, burned Walter's letter in the grate.

Afterwards she went to her stepfather and suggested that perhaps they
might leave Conflans earlier than he had resolved.

"I hear there is a train at three-five. If we went by that," she said,
"we could cross from Ostend instead of by Antwerp, and thus be