sometimes
had.

"Will you forgive me for running away on your first evening here?" she
asked sweetly. "I think perhaps a little change of scene will quiet my
nerves a bit. _Au revoir, mon cher--a domain_."

She kissed the tips of her fingers to him and moved slowly down the
stairs, followed by her indifferent swain. When the front door banged
Roger spoke:

"Then you've met that fellow before?"

For the life of him he didn't know why he said "that fellow."

"He came to lunch at the doctor's one day," Esther informed him, then
added with a reminiscent and faintly malicious smile: "He thinks he has
seen me before, and it bothers him."

"Has he?" demanded Roger bluntly.

"Yes, but he can't recall where, and I'm not going to tell him. As a
matter of fact, it was at the Restaurant des Ambassadeurs. I was
sitting at the table next to him one afternoon."

"Oh, I see!"

Somehow this explanation was very agreeable to Roger's ruffled
sensibilities.

"Coming down to dinner?" he inquired, feeling a glow of regret at
having misjudged her.

"Yes, but I want to make a quick change first."

"I'll wait for you."

He didn't know why he said that either. It came out unbidden.
Ridiculous, the interest he was taking in this girl, whom he had not
set eyes on before this morning. Yet there it was, he felt a distinct
desire for her company and a longing to know if he could again inspire
that sudden blush. It still irked him to think she had been able to
blush for Holliday; the little beast was not worth it.

Lighting a cigarette, he strolled to the window at the end of the hall
near his own door and, parting the curtains, looked out. Through the
black fretwork of the acacias showed the thin crescent of the new moon,
clean and sharp as a knife-blade. He made a wry face. He had seen the
new moon through both trees and glass!

"It's a good thing I'm not superstitious," he reflected; yet for all
his avowal he was conscious of a sudden qualm, which irritated him.

A heavy, inelastic step creaked across the floor behind him. Turning,
he found Dr. Sartorius beside him. The gravity of the large face, with
its bald, slanting forehead and small lightish eyes, slightly alarmed
him.

"Is anything wrong, doctor?" he asked quickly.

"No, no, nothing at all. I merely promised to tell you that your
father would like you to attend to a small matter for him in the
morning before you go out. I believe he wants you to open