it.

It was Fate. He had felt it from the very first, and now he was sure of
it.

How would it end? How _could_ it end?

Paul Zalenska was very young--oh, very young, indeed!

CHAPTER VII

The next day Verdayne and his young companion were introduced to Mr.
Ledoux and his guest.

Gilbert Ledoux, a reserved man evidently descended from generations of
thinking people, was apparently worried, for his face bore unmistakable
signs of some mental disturbance. Paul Zalenska was struck by the
haunted expression of what must naturally have been a grave countenance.
It was not guilt, for he had not the face of a man pursued by
conscience, but it certainly was fear--a real fear. And Paul wondered.

As for the Count de Roannes, the Boy dismissed him at once as unworthy
of further consideration. He was brilliantly, even artificially
polished--glaringly ultra-fashionable, ostentatiously polite and suave.
In the lines of his bestial face he bore the records of a lifetime's
profligacy and the black tales of habitual self-indulgence. Paul hated
him instinctively and wondered how a man of Ledoux's unmistakable
refinement could tolerate him for a moment.

It was not until the middle of the following afternoon that Opal Ledoux
appeared on deck, when her father, with an air of pride, mingled with a
certain curious element of timidity, presented to her in due form both
the Englishman and his friend.

The eyes of the two young people flashed a recognition that the lips of
each tacitly denied as they responded conventionally to the
introduction.

Paul noticed that the shadow of her father's uneasiness was reflected
upon her in a somewhat lesser but all too evident degree. And again he
wondered.

A few moments of desultory conversation that was of no interest to
Paul--and then the Count proposed a game of _ecarte_, to which Verdayne
and Ledoux assented readily enough.

But not so our Boy!

_Ecarte!_ Bah! When did a boy of twenty ever want to play cards within
sound of the rustle of a petticoat?--and _such_ a petticoat!

When the elderly gallant noted the attitude of the young fellow he cast
a quick glance of suspicion at Opal. He would have withdrawn his
proposal had he been able to find any plausible excuse. But it was too
late. And with an inward invective on his own blundering, he followed
the other gentlemen to the smoking-room.

And Paul and Opal were at last face to face--and alone!

He turned as the sound o