s
of the first woman of wit. I dare you to cross my path! I will then join
Captain the Honorable Anson Anstruther, in Paris, at the Hotel Binda!
I will also see that you are excluded from every club in India! Your
occupation will be gone, my Knight of Ecarte. Anstruther waits for
me." She tossed him a card. "See for yourself. He was kind enough at
breakfast, and, he will help me, if I ask him."

"And why do you not fly to his arms?" sneered Alan Hawke, who had
quickly resigned the bullying tone of his abordage.

"Because he is a nice boy and a gentleman," the woman said, with a
cutting emphasis. "Now, let me read you, Monsieur le Major, a lesson
in manners. Never be rough with a woman! That is the road which always
leads on to failure. I wish you a good appetite for your breakfast,
which I have delayed, and for which I beg your pardon!" She rose and
swept along with her Juno strides, and had reached the second Hall of
Antiquities before Alan Hawke overtook her. It had flashed across his
mind that he had for once in his life met a woman who was not afraid of
the future, whatever had been her past. A single malicious letter from
Anstruther would ruin him in India, for there was an ominous cloud, no
bigger than a man's hand, lingering in that hiatus between his old
rank of Lieutenant of Bengal Artillery, and the shadowy tenure of his
self-dubbed Majority. This Aspasia hid none of her methods. She had
boldly captivated the passing Pericles, and, evidently, she was the
desired one.

"Let me explain," he began, as the woman looked calmly into his face.

"We are only losing time, Major," Madame Louison remarked, as she sought
a corner. "I see that you have already repented. Do you know any one in
Geneva?"

"Not one of the seventy-five thousand here," frankly answered Hawke.
"The only man I came here to see, the English Consul, is away on leave."

"Then I can use you safely," answered the stranger. "Now, I owe you a
breakfast. Will you put me in my carriage? I know the town thoroughly.
Remember that it is only business that brings us together, and yet we
may become better friends." In a half an hour they were seated in an
arbor by the lake, where a homely German restaurant offered good cheer.

The Lady of the Lake did the honors ceremoniously, and Major Alan
Hawke was permitted a cigar after the lake trout, filet, pears, cheese,
Chambertin, and black coffee had been discussed. He was both conquered
and repentant, and ha