instant he had re-entered the
ballroom and was making his most elegant bow over a lady's hand.

Wondering what was the nature of the _coup_, I presently slipped away to
my room, but as I walked along the corridor I felt almost certain that I
saw Rosalie's black skirts flouncing round the corner. It was as though
I had discovered her on the wrong floor, and that she had tried to
escape me. The movements of that girl were so constantly suspicious.

I threw off my evening clothes, and putting on a rough suit, an
overcoat, and motor-cap, went down the back staircase and along to the
garage, where, amid the coming and going of the cars of departing
guests, I was able to run out without being noticed.

Ten minutes later I was outside the town, and drawing up in the dark
lonely road that leads across the plain for fifteen miles to quaint old
Pisa, I got down and examined my tyres, pretending I had a puncture
should anyone become too inquisitive. Glancing at my watch, I found it
was already twenty minutes to two. The moon was overcast, and the
atmosphere stifling and oppressive, precursory of a thunderstorm.

Each minute seemed an hour. Indeed, I grew so nervous that I felt half
inclined to escape upon the car. Yet if I left that spot I might leave
my audacious friend in the lurch, and in peril of arrest most likely.

It was close upon half-past two, as nearly as I could judge, when I
heard a quick footstep in the road. I took off one of the acetylene
head-lamps of the car and turned it in that direction, in order to
ascertain who was coming along.

A woman in a dark stuff dress, and wearing a veil, approached quickly. A
moment later, to my mingled surprise and dismay, I saw it was none other
than the dainty Rosalie herself, in a very admirable disguise, which
gave her an appearance of being double her age.

"Ah! monsieur!" she gasped, quite out of breath from walking so rapidly.
"Drive me at once to Pisa. Don't lose a single instant. The Paris
express passes at four minutes past three, and I must catch it. The last
train left here three hours ago."

"You--alone?"

"Yes. I go alone."

"But--well, let us speak quite frankly. Is no one else coming?" I
inquired.

"_Non, m'sieur._ You will take me to Pisa at once, please," she said
impatiently.

So perforce I had to mount into the car, and when she had settled
herself beside me, I drew off upon the dark and execrable road to the
city she had indicated, in order to ca