"Sophie," he cried out from the garden, "the carriage is here! Come
along--we have wasted too much time already--"

Like Anna Wolsky, Monsieur Wachner grudged every moment spent away from
the tables.

Madame Wachner hurried her two guests into her bed-room to put on their
hats.

Anna Wolsky walked over to the window.

"What a strange, lonely place to live in!" she said, and drew the lace
shawl she was wearing a little more closely about her thin shoulders.
"And that wood over there--I should be afraid to live so near a wood!
I should think that there might be queer people concealed there."

"Bah! Why should we be frightened, even if there were queer people
there!"

"Well, but sometimes you must have a good deal of money in this house."

Madame Wachner laughed.

"When we have so much money that we cannot carry it about, and that,
alas! is not very often--but still, when Fritz makes a big win, we go
into Paris and bank the money."

"I do not trouble to do that," said Anna, "for I always carry all my
money about with me. What do you do?" she turned to Sylvia Bailey.

"I leave it in my trunk at the hotel," said Sylvia. "The servants at the
Villa du Lac seem to be perfectly honest--in fact they are mostly related
to the proprietor, M. Polperro."

"Oh, but that is quite wrong!" exclaimed Madame Wachner, eagerly. "You
should never leave your money in the hotel; you should always carry it
about with you--in little bags like this. See!"

Again she suddenly lifted the light alpaca skirt she was wearing, as she
had done before, in this very room, on the occasion of Sylvia's first
visit to the Chalet. "That is the way to carry money in a place like
this!" she said, smiling. "But now hurry, or all our evening will be
gone!"

They left the house, and hastened down the garden to the gate, where
L'Ami Fritz received his wife with a grumbling complaint that they had
been so long.

And he was right, for the Casino was very full. Sylvia made no attempt
to play. Somehow she did not care for the Club when Count Paul was not
there.

She was glad when she was at last able to leave the others for the Villa
du Lac.

Anna Wolsky accompanied her friend to the entrance of the Casino. The
Comte de Virieu was just coming in as Sylvia went out; bowing distantly
to the two ladies, he hurried through the vestibule towards the Club.

Sylvia's heart sank. Not even after spending a day with his beloved
sister could he resist the lur