courtesy, released Nadine to her own devices,
while Professor Andrew Fraser returned to his afternoon studies with
that famous young Yankee savant, Professor Alaric Hobbs, of Waukesha
University.

The beautiful captive was now happy in dissembling her contentment, for,
though the sharp-featured Scotch housekeeper, Janet Fairbarn, keenly
watched all her outgoings, sending always one of the women as an
"outside guard," the heiress had learned some of woman's secret arts
quickly. The peddler, Alois Vautier, brought to her letters and messages
which made her lonely heart light, even in her stately semi-durance. And
the epistles of Major Harry Hardwicke left her with a heart trembling in
delight after their perusal.

And so it fell out that four days after Alixe Delavigne had returned to
Rosebank Villa, that a packet of important letters was smuggled past the
droning Professor's picket line, one of which caused Nadine Johnstone to
hide her tell-tale blushes in her room.

"To-morrow I will come by, to deliver some little purchases of the
maids! Have your answers all ready. I will be here at ten, at the garden
gate!" Long after the Yankee Professor had left the "Folly" for St.
Heliers that night, the lonely girl bent her beautiful head over the
pages, destined to safely reach her lover's eyes in fair London town.
And to Berthe Louison, she now poured out her loving heart, for she knew
that her protecting friends would soon be near her.

"We are waiting, watching, and planning," wrote Alixe Delavigne. "Be
cheerful--silent--watchful! I must be near you, I must see you, face to
face, to tell you all the story of the past! I will then tell you, my
own darling child, of the mother whom you have never known. But, first,
Major Hardwicke must open a way to your side! Beware of the schemes of
Alan Hawke! He will be here to-morrow, and he may steal over to Jersey,
though his duty takes him for a month to the Continent! You will surely
see Major Hardwicke before you see me for Andrew Fraser might take alarm
at a sight of my face and so hide you away from us all!"

Miss Mildred Anstruther was a delicate symphony in gray, as she
gracefully presided the next evening over the dinner table at which
Alixe Delavigne, Captain Anstruther, Major Hardwicke, and Captain
Murray merrily discussed the sudden hastening of Captain Eric Murray's
nuptials. Hardwicke's duty as "best man" was now the only bar to the
beginning of a campaign destined to