_ from Berlin to Paris, and had
just left the great echoing station of Cologne, with few stops between
there and Paris. Day was breaking.

I had met Julie Granier under curious circumstances only a few hours
before.

At Berlin, being known to the controller of the Wagon-lit Company, I was
at once given a two-berth compartment in the long, dusty sleeping-car,
those big carriages in which I so often spent days, and nights too, for
the matter of that.

"M'sieur is for Paris?" asked the brown-uniformed conductor as I
entered, and after flinging in my traps, I descended, went to the buffet
and had a mazagran and cigarette until our departure.

I had not sat there more than five minutes when the conductor, a man
with whom I had travelled a dozen times, put his head in at the door,
and, seeing me, withdrew. Then, a few moments later, he entered with a
tall, dark-haired, good-looking girl, who stood aside as he approached
me, cap in hand.

"Excuse me, m'sieur, but a lady wishes to ask a great favour of you."

"Of me? What is it?" I inquired, rising.

Glancing at the tall figure in black, I saw that she was not more than
twenty-two at the outside, and that she had the bearing and manner of a
lady.

"Well, m'sieur, she will explain herself," the man said, whereupon the
fair stranger approached bowing, and exclaimed:

"I trust m'sieur will pardon me for what I am about to ask," she said in
French. "I know it is great presumption on my part, a total stranger,
but the fact is that I am bound to get to Paris to-morrow. It is
imperative--most imperative--that I should be there and keep an
appointment. I find, however, that all the berths are taken, and that
the only vacant one is in your compartment. I thought----" and she
hesitated, with downcast eyes.

"You mean that you want me to allow you to travel here, mademoiselle?" I
said, with a smile.

"Ah, m'sieur! If you would; if you only would! It would be an act of
friendship that I would never forget."

She saw my hesitation, and I detected how anxious she became. Her gloved
hands were trembling, and she seemed agitated and pale to the lips.

Again I scrutinised her. There was nothing of the spy or adventuress
about her. On the contrary, she seemed a very charmingly modest young
woman, for in continuation of her request she suggested that she could
sit in the conductor's seat in the corridor.

"But surely that would be rather wearisome, mademoiselle?" I said.

"No,