he evening before, the young
millionairess was "getting on" very well in exhibiting the glories of
the tropical garden to the august tourist from the lacustrine Himalayas.

Jules Victor adroitly busied the maid whom Janet Fairbarn had dispatched
to "play propriety," and the other London girl had quietly stolen away
to her own last rendezvous with her mysterious London lover, "Mr. Joseph
Smith," otherwise "Jack Blunt, Esq., of the Swell Mob of the Thames."

The whispers of the stately young Prince brought crimson blushes to the
face of the glowing girl, whose answering murmurs were as low as the
siren voice of Swinburne's "small serpents, with soft, stretching
throats." They had a double secret to keep now. A momentous, a dangerous
one; for in the depths of the Tropical Gardens of Rozel, the passionate
hearted Alixe Delavigne was hidden, waiting this very morning to clasp
again the beautiful orphan to a bosom throbbing in wildest love. Prince
Djiddin, always on his guard, artfully turned back and busied the maid,
when she was released from Jules Victor's vociferous bar-gaining, with
a half-hour's choosing her "fairing," out of the lively peddler's pretty
stock. The woman's vanity made her an easy victim. The "descendant of
Thibetan Kings" could not, of course, speak intelligibly, but the yellow
sovereigns which he carried were the magic talisman which opened at once
the pretty maid servant's softened heart.

It was a long half hour before the happy Nadine Johnstone returned to
join the kinsman of the Maharajah of Cashmere. Her eyes were gleaming
in a tender, dawning lovelight, her lips still thrilling with Alixe
Delavigne's warm kisses. In her heart, there still rang out her
mysterious visitor's last words: "Wait, darling! My own darling! Before
another month the secret Government agent will have officially visited
Andrew Fraser. We are all ready to act with crushing power when the
happy moment safely arrives. And you shall then hear all the story
of the past on my breast. You shall know how near you have been to
my loving heart in all these weary years. The story of your own dear
mother's life shall be my wedding present to you. Yet, a few days more
of watchful patience," softly sighed Alixe.

"For we must not let Andrew Fraser wake for a moment from his frenzy of
Thibetan study until we can force from him the permission which we will
demand to visit you, and to free you from his control."

Prince Djiddin paced sole