back in her seat.

"Aunt seems to be asleep, but she isn't," she declared. "She is really a
very efficient chaperon. Talk to me about China, please, and tell me
about your _Dragon_ airship. Is it true that you have silver baths, and
that Gauteron painted the walls of your dining salon?"

"One is in the air five days on the way over," he answered
indifferently. "It is necessary that one's surroundings should be
agreeable. Perhaps some day I may have the honour of showing it to you.
In the darkness, and when she is docked, there is little to be seen."

She looked at him curiously.

"You knew that I was there, then?"

"Yours was the first face I saw when I descended from the car," he told
her. "You stood apart, watching, and I wondered why. I knew, too, that
you would be at the Ritz to-night. That is why I came there. As a rule,
I do not dine in public."

"How could you possibly know that I was going to be there?" Maggie asked
curiously.

"I sent a gentleman of my suite to look through the names of those who
had booked tables," he answered. "It was very simple."

"It was only a chance that the table was reserved in my name," she
reminded him.

"It was chance which brought us together," he rejoined. "It is chance
under another name to which I trust in life."

For the first time in her life, in her relations with the other sex,
Maggie felt a queer sensation which was almost fear. She felt herself
losing poise, her will governed, her whole self dominated. Unconsciously
she drew herself a little away. Her eyes travelled around the crowded
house and suddenly rested on the box which her visitor had just vacated.
Seated behind the curtains, but leaning slightly forward, her eyes fixed
intently upon Prince Shan, was La Belle Nita, a green opera cloak thrown
around her dancing costume, a curious, striking little figure in the
semi-obscurity.

"You have some one waiting for you in your box," Maggie told him.

He glanced across the auditorium and rose to his feet. She gave him
credit for the adroitness of mind which rejected the obvious
explanation of her presence there.

"I must go," he said simply, "but I have many things which I desire to
say to you. You will not forget to-morrow afternoon?"

"I shall not forget," she answered, in a low tone.

CHAPTER XV

There was a half reluctant admiration in Prince Shan's eyes as he sat
back in the dim recesses of his box and scrutinised his visitor. La
Belle Nita