the plans of the murderous fanatics was beyond doubt. Her accent
on that occasion clearly had been assumed, with what object I could
not imagine. Then, as we quitted the lift and entered a cosy
lounge, my companion seated herself upon a Chesterfield, signing to
me to sit beside her.

As I did so she lay back smiling, and regarding me from beneath her
black lashes. Thus, half veiled, her great violet eyes were most
wonderful.

"Now, sir," she said softly, "explain yourself."

"Then you persist in pretending that we have not met before?"

"There is no occasion for pretence," she replied lightly; and I
found myself comparing her voice with her figure, her figure with
her face, and vainly endeavouring to compute her age. Frankly,
she was bewildering--this lovely girl who seemed so wholly a woman
of the world.

"This fencing is useless."

"It is quite useless! Come, I know New York, London, and I know
Paris, Vienna, Budapest. Therefore I know mankind! You thought I
was pretty, I suppose? I may be; others have thought so. And you
thought you would like to make my acquaintance without troubling
about the usual formalities? You adopted a singularly brutal
method of achieving your object, but I love such insolence in a man.
Therefore I forgave you. What have you to say to me?"