in rapid charming movements of the head, which she had a
way of throwing back every now and then with an air of attention and a
sidelong glance from her dove-like eyes. She seemed at once alert
and indifferent, contemplative and restless, and Longmore very soon
discovered that if she was not a brilliant beauty she was at least a
most attaching one. This very impression made him magnanimous. He was
certain he had interrupted a confidential conversation, and judged it
discreet to withdraw, having first learned from Maggie's mamma--Mrs.
Draper--that she was to take the six o'clock train back to Paris. He
promised to meet her at the station.

He kept his appointment, and Mrs. Draper arrived betimes, accompanied
by her friend. The latter, however, made her farewells at the door and
drove away again, giving Longmore time only to raise his hat. "Who
is she?" he asked with visible ardour as he brought the traveller her
tickets.

"Come and see me to-morrow at the Hotel de l'Empire," she answered,
"and I'll tell you all about her." The force of this offer in making
him punctual at the Hotel de l'Empire Longmore doubtless never exactly
measured; and it was perhaps well he was vague, for he found his friend,
who was on the point of leaving Paris, so distracted by procrastinating
milliners and perjured lingeres that coherence had quite deserted her.
"You must find Saint-Germain dreadfully dull," she nevertheless had the
presence of mind to say as he was going. "Why won't you come with me to
London?"

"Introduce me to Madame de Mauves," he answered, "and Saint-Germain will
quite satisfy me." All he had learned was the lady's name and residence.

"Ah she, poor woman, won't make your affair a carnival. She's very
unhappy," said Mrs. Draper.

Longmore's further enquiries were arrested by the arrival of a young
lady with a bandbox; but he went away with the promise of a note of
introduction, to be immediately dispatched to him at Saint-Germain.

He then waited a week, but the note never came, and he felt how little
it was for Mrs. Draper to complain of engagements unperformed. He
lounged on the terrace and walked in the forest, studied suburban street
life and made a languid attempt to investigate the records of the court
of the exiled Stuarts; but he spent most of his time in wondering where
Madame de Mauves lived and whether she ever walked on the terrace.
Sometimes, he was at last able to recognise; for one afternoon toward
dus