stroll along the promenade.

As soon as we were entirely alone she said--

"To-morrow you will take me for a run on the car, and the next day you
will introduce me to one or two of the best people. I will discover who
are the proper persons for me to know. I shall say that you are George
Ewart, eldest son of a Member of the English Parliament, and well known
in London--eh?"

As we were walking in the shadow, through the small leafy public garden
lying between the roadway and the sea, we suddenly encountered the
figure of a young woman who, in passing, saluted my companion with deep
respect. It was Rosalie.

"She's wandering here alone, and watching for me to re-enter the hotel,"
remarked Valentine. "But she need not follow me like this, I think."

"No," I said. "Somehow, I don't like that girl."

"Why not? She's all right. What more natural than that she should be on
the spot to receive me when I come in?"

"But you don't want to be spied upon like this, surely!" I said
resentfully. "Have you done anything to arouse her suspicions that you
are not--well, not exactly what you pretend yourself to be?"

"Nothing whatever; I have been a model of discretion. She never went to
the Avenue Kleber. I was staying for two nights at the Grand--under my
present title--and after engaging her I told her that the house in the
Avenue des Champs Elysees was in the hands of decorators."

"Well, I don't half like her following us. She may have overheard
something of what we've just been saying--who knows?"

"Rubbish! Ah! _mon cher ami_, you are always scenting danger where there
is none."

I merely shrugged my shoulders, but my opinion remained. There was
something mysterious about Rosalie--what it was I could not make out.

At ten o'clock next morning Her Highness met me in the big marble hall
of the hotel dressed in the smartest motor-clothes, with a silk
dust-coat and the latest invention in veils--pale blue with long ends
twisted several times around her throat. Even in that costume she looked
dainty and extremely charming.

I, too, was altered in a manner that certainly disguised my true
calling; and when I brought the car round to the front steps, quite a
crowd of visitors gathered to see her climb to the seat beside me, wrap
the rug around her skirts, and start away.

With a deep blast on the electric horn I swept out of the hotel grounds
to the left, and a few moments later we were heading away along the
broad sea-