confusion she informed me that this certainly was the case.

"Very well, then, I am certainly your servant," I said. "It is your
interests I shall have to study."

"I can trust them implicitly to you, I am sure, Mr. Fairfax," she
replied. "And now here we are at the church. If you walk quickly you
will be just in time to catch your train. Let me thank you again for
coming down to-day."

"It has been a great pleasure to me," I replied. "Perhaps when I return
from Paris you will permit me to come down again to report progress?"

"We shall be very pleased to see you," she answered. "Now, good-bye, and
a pleasant journey to you!"

We shook hands and parted. As I passed along the road I watched her
making her way along the avenue towards the church. There was need for
me to shake my head.

"George Fairfax," said I, "it would require very little of that young
lady's society to enable you to make a fool of yourself."

CHAPTER VIII

Unlike so many of my countrymen I am prepared to state that I detest the
French capital. I always make my visits to it as brief as possible,
then, my business completed, off I fly again, seeming to breathe more
freely when I am outside its boundaries. I don't know why this should be
so, for I have always been treated with the utmost courtesy and
consideration by its inhabitants, particularly by those members of the
French Detective Force with whom I have been brought in contact.

On this visit I crossed with one of the cleverest Parisian detectives, a
man with whom I have had many dealings. He was most anxious to ascertain
the reason of my visit to his country. My assurance that I was not in
search of any one of his own criminals seemed to afford him no sort of
satisfaction. He probably regarded it as an attempt to put him off the
scent, and I fancy he resented it. We reached Paris at seven o'clock,
whereupon I invited him to dine with me at eight o'clock, at a
restaurant we had both patronized on many previous occasions. He
accepted my invitation, and promised to meet me at the time and place I
named. On the platform awaiting our arrival was my man Dickson, to whom
I had telegraphed, ordering him to meet me.

"Well, Dickson," I said, when I had bade the detective _an revoir_,
"what about our man?"

"I've had him under my eye, sir," he answered. "I know exactly what he's
been doing, and where he's staying."

"That's good news indeed," I replied. "Have you discovered anything else