ad just avowed, again
asked:

"Will you go to your room now?"

He did not wait for any reply, but touched a bell, and a waiter almost
immediately appeared to answer the call.

Louis signified to him that his companion wished to retire, whereupon the
man took her bag and wrap and motioned Mona to follow him.

With despair in her heart, but a dauntless mien, the fair girl obeyed,
and crossing the wide entrance hall, mounted the great staircase to the
second story.

As they were passing through a long upper hall a door suddenly opened,
and a gentleman came out of one of the rooms.

Mona's heart gave a leap of joy as she saw him, for she was almost sure
that he was an American, and she was on the point of speaking to him, but
he passed her so quickly she had no opportunity.

She was rejoiced, however, to observe that her guide stopped before the
door of a room next to the one which the stranger had just left, and she
resolved that she would listen for his return, and manage to communicate
with him in some way before morning.

The porter threw open the door, and stood aside to allow her to pass in.

The room was lighted, and she saw that while it was not large, it was
comfortably furnished, and her trunk stood unstrapped in one corner. The
next moment the door closed upon her, and she heard the key turned in the
lock.

A bitter sob burst from her as she dashed the hot tears from her eyes,
and a low, eager cry broke from her lips as she noticed that a door
connected her room with the one from which the gentleman had issued a
few moments before.

She sprang toward it, and turned the handle.

It was locked, of course. She told herself she might have known it would
be, but she had acted upon an uncontrollable impulse.

But as she released her hold upon the knob she thought she heard some one
moving about within the other room.

Perhaps the gentleman had his wife with him, and impelled by a wild hope,
Mona knocked upon a panel to attract attention, and the next moment she
was sure she caught the rustle of skirts as some one glided toward her.

Putting her lips to the key-hole, she said, in a low, appealing tone:

"Oh! can you speak English, French, or German? Pray answer me."

She thought she had never heard sweeter music than when the clear, gentle
voice of a woman replied:

"I can speak English, but no other language."

"Oh! I am so glad!" almost sobbed Mona. "Please put your ear close to the
key-hole, a