ow realised that he had only
lacked the courage to make a thorough change. In his present costume he
ran no risk of being taken for a smart English lounger, nor for a
French dandy. The effect of forgetting to shave, too, was frightful,
for in forty-eight hours his fair face was covered with shiny bristles
that had a positively metallic look. Though he was so unlike his mother
in most ways, he must have inherited a little of the theatrical
instinct from her, for he wore his disguise as easily as if he had
always been used to it.

He also had the advantage of speaking French like a native, though
possibly with a very slight southern accent caught from his mother, who
originally came from Provence. As for his name, it was useless to
assume another, for Paris is full of Parisians of foreign descent,
whose names are English, German, Polish and Italian; and in a really
great city no one takes the least notice of a man unless he does
something to attract attention. Besides, Lushington had no idea of
disappearing from his own world, or of cutting himself off from his
regular correspondents.

He had not any fixed plan, for he was not sure what he wanted; he only
knew that he hated and distrusted Logotheti, and that while he could
not forgive Margaret for liking the Greek's society, he meant, in an
undetermined way, to save her from destruction. Probably, if he had
attempted to put his thoughts into words, he could have got no further
than Mrs. Rushmore, who suspected Logotheti of designs, and at the root
of his growing suspicion he would have found the fine old Anglo-Saxon
prejudice that a woman might as well trust herself to Don Juan, an
Italian Count, or Beelzebub, as to the offspring of Cadmus or Danaus.

Englishmen have indolent minds and active bodies, as a rule, but on the
other hand, when they are really roused, no people in the world are
capable of greater mental concentration and energy. They are therefore
not good detectives as a rule, but there are few better when they are
deeply and selfishly interested in the result.

Incidentally, Lushington meant to do his utmost to prevent Margaret
from going on the stage, and he would have been much surprised to learn
that in this respect he was Logotheti's ally, instead of his enemy,
against Margaret's fixed determination. If there was to be a struggle,
therefore, it was to be a three-cornered one, in which the two men
would be pitted against each other, and both together a