to the face of the girl, Roddy stood in the road at
attention, like a trooper reporting to his superior officer.

"We were in the tea-house of the Hundred and One Steps," said Roddy.
"We called ourselves the White Mice."

Speaking quickly he brought his story down to the present moment. When
he had finished, Inez, who had been bending toward him, straightened
herself in the saddle and sat rigidly erect. Her lips and brows were
drawn into two level lines, her voice came to him from an
immeasurable distance.

"Then it was a joke?" she said.

"A joke!" cried Roddy hotly. "That's most unfair. If you will only
give us permission we'll prove to you that it is no joke. Perhaps, as
I told it, it sounded heartless. I told it badly. What could I
say--that I am sorry? Could I, a stranger, offer sympathy to you? But
we _are_ sorry. Ever since Peter proposed it, ever since I saw your
father----"

The girl threw herself forward, trembling. Her eyes opened wide.

"You saw my father!" she exclaimed. "Tell me," she begged, "did he
look well? Did he speak to you? When did you--" she stopped suddenly,
and turning her face from him, held her arm across her eyes.

"It was four months ago," said Roddy. "I was not allowed to speak to
him. We bowed to each other. That was all."

"I must tell them," cried the girl, "they must know that I have seen
some one who has seen him. But if they know I have seen you----"

She paused; as though asking advice she looked questioningly at Roddy.
He shook his head.

"I don't understand," he said.

"My mother and sister don't know that I am here," Inez told him. "If
they did they would be very angry. No one," she added warningly, "must
know. They are afraid of you. They cannot understand why you offer to
help us. And they mistrust you. That is why I had to see you here in
this way." With a shrug of distaste the girl glanced about her.
"Fortunately," she added, "you understand."

"Why, yes," Roddy assented doubtfully. "I understand your doing what
_you_ did, but I don't understand the others. Who is it," he asked,
"who mistrusts me? Who," he added smiling, "besides yourself?"

"My mother," answered Inez directly, "your consul, Captain Codman,
Colonel Vega, and----"

In surprise, Roddy laughed and raised his eyebrows.

"Vega!" he exclaimed. "Why should Vega mistrust me?" Knowing what was
in his mind, the girl made him a formal little bow.

"It is not," she answered, "because you saved his li