want to know."

"Then her name is really Dumont?" I asked quickly.

"I suppose so. That will do as well as any other--eh?" and he laughed.

"But last night you were not open with me, my dear Henri," I replied;
"therefore why should I be open with you?"

"Well--for your own sake."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean this," said Regnier, with a glance at his silent friend, who
still retained his mask, and to whom he had not introduced me. "You're
putting your head into a noose by going about with her. You should avoid
her."

"Why? She's most charming."

"I admit that. But for your own sake you should exercise the greatest
care. I follow the same profession as you and your people do--and I
merely warn you," he said very seriously.

The man standing by him exclaimed in French--

"Phew! What an atmosphere!" and removed his velvet mask.

It was the gay boulevardier whom I had seen on the Jetee Promenade.

"Why do you warn me?" I inquired, surprised at the reveller's grave
face, so different from what it had been when he had shaken his bells
and sung the merry chorus of "La Noire."

"Because you're acting the fool, Ewart," Regnier replied.

"I'm merely taking them about on the car."

"But how did you first come across them?" he repeated.

"That's my own affair, _mon cher_," I responded, with a laugh; for I
could not quite see why he took such an interest in us both, or why he
should have been watching us.

"Oh, very well," he answered in a tone of slight annoyance. "Only tell
your people to be careful. And don't say I didn't warn you. I know
her--and you don't."

"Yes," interposed his companion. "We both know her, Henri, don't we--to
our cost, eh?"

"She recognised you this evening," I said.

"I know. I was amazed to find her here, in Nice--and with the old woman,
too!"

"But who is she? Tell me the truth," I urged.

"She's somebody you ought not to know, Ewart," replied "The President."
"She can do you no good--only harm."

"How?"

"Well, I tell you this much, that I wouldn't care to run the risk of
taking her about as you are doing."

"You're talking in riddles. Why not?" I queried.

"Because, as I've already told you, it's dangerous--very dangerous."

"You mean that she knows who and what we are?"

"She knows more than you think. I wouldn't trust her as far as I could
see her. Would you, Raoul?" he asked his companion.

"But surely she hasn't long been out of the schoolroom."

"Schoolroom!