had fallen between them. Hermione rushed to her
own room, there to consult a mirror, and readjust her hat and veil and
disordered hair, but Curtis met a hurrying waiter.

"Sorry to bother you," he said, "but my wife has come in unexpectedly,
and we shall want breakfast for two." He raised his voice:

"Coffee for you, Hermione, or would you prefer tea?"

"Coffee, of course," was the answer, in so calm and collected a tone
that the waiter thought he must have been mistaken in his first
impression.

"No trouble at all, sir," he said, with the ready civility of his
class. "Unless you wish to wait, sir, I'll bring another cup and some
hot plates, and order a further supply from the kitchen."

"You're a man of resource," cried Curtis cheerfully. "I leave the
arrangements to you with confidence. . . . Come along, Hermione.
Don't say you have breakfasted already."

"I won't, because I haven't," she said, reappearing with a smiling
nonchalance which removed the last shred of doubt from the waiter's
mind. But, for all that, she electrified Curtis with a timidly
grateful glance, for she appreciated his thoughtfulness in giving her
an opportunity to collect her scattered wits. There was need of some
such respite; she had much to relate, she thought, before he could
possibly understand the motives which led to her flight.

Barely half an hour ago Mr. Steingall had put in an appearance at her
apartment. He had told her, with convincing brevity, exactly why
Curtis refrained from adding to her perplexities by announcing the
comparative well-being of Jean de Courtois.

"He was very kind," said Hermione, sweetly penitent, "but he made me
feel rather like a worm when he said that if I were his own daughter he
would thank God that I had fallen into the hands of a man like you. He
said, too, that if I owed you something, he owed you more, because you
had saved his life last night, so, being an impulsive creature, I
hurried here to ask your forgiveness for that horrid note."

"There is no lie so difficult to combat as a half truth," said John.
"That fellow, Schmidt, impressed you because he probably believed what
he was saying. As for Steingall, he makes rather too much of what I
did for him, but, if there was any debt on his side, he has repaid me
with ample interest."

The waiter had left the room, and Hermione was free to blush without
restraint, a privilege she availed herself of fully now.

"But, dear, you and I c