fortunate that we did so!"

"Will you kindly show me the letter she left for you?" said Sylvia.

Without speaking, Madame Malfait bent down over her table, and then held
out a piece of notepaper on which were written the words:

Madame Malfait,--

Being unexpectedly obliged to leave Lacville, I enclose herewith 200
francs. Please pay what is owing to you out of it, and distribute the
rest among the servants. I will send you word where to forward my
luggage in a day or two.

Sylvia stared reflectively at the open letter.

Anna had not even signed her name. The few lines were very clear, written
in a large, decided handwriting, considerably larger, or so it seemed to
Sylvia, than what she had thought Anna's ordinary hand to be. But then
the Englishwoman had not had the opportunity of seeing much of her Polish
friend's caligraphy.

Before she had quite finished reading the mysterious letter over a second
time, Madame Malfait took it out of her hand.

But Sylvia Bailey was entirely unused to being snubbed--pretty young
women provided with plenty of money seldom are snubbed--and so she did
not turn away and leave the hall, as Madame Malfait hoped she would do.

"What a strange thing!" she observed, in a troubled tone. "How
extraordinary it is that my friend should have gone away like this,
leaving her luggage behind her! What can possibly have made her want to
leave Lacville in such a hurry? She was actually engaged to have dinner
with our friends, Monsieur and Madame Wachner. Did she not send them any
sort of message, Madame Malfait? I wish you would try and remember what
she said when she went out."

The Frenchwoman looked at her with a curious stare.

"If you ask me to tell you the truth, Madame," she replied, rather
insolently, "I have no doubt at all that your friend went to the Casino
yesterday and lost a great deal of money--that she became, in fact,
_decavee_."

Then, feeling ashamed, both of her rudeness and of her frankness, she
added:

"But Madame Wolsky is a very honest lady, that I will say for her. You
see, she left enough money to pay for everything, as well as to provide
my servants with handsome gratuities. That is more than the last person
who left the Pension Malfait in a hurry troubled to do!"

"But is it not extraordinary that she left her luggage, and that she did
not even tell you where she was going?" repeated Sylvia in a worried,
dissatisfied tone.

"Pardon me, Madame, th