father suggested politely.

For a moment she was silent, staring at my father almost incredulously,
while he inclined his head solicitously, as though ready to obey her
smallest wish. Again I started to turn away.

"The door, Brutus," said my father.

"I am beginning to see I made a mistake in not remaining," Mademoiselle
said finally. "Yet you--"

"Contrived to rescue both the papers and Mademoiselle, if I remember
rightly," said my father, bowing, "an interesting and original
undertaking, but pray do not thank me."

"Be still!" she commanded sharply. "You were not paid to be impertinent,
captain. I have only one more request to make of you before I leave this
house tomorrow morning."

He shrugged his shoulders, and glanced at me, as though definitely to
assure himself that I was listening.

"I do not think that Mademoiselle will leave the house at that date," he
said, with a second bow.

"And what does the captain mean by that?" she asked quickly.

"Simply that the house is already watched," said my father, "watched,
Mademoiselle, by persons in the pay of the French government. Do not
start, Mademoiselle, they will not trouble us tonight, I think."