sins,--and especially the sins of pride and presumption!"

And with a shade of profound melancholy on his features, the
little Doctor put by his note-book, and, avoiding all the hotel
loungers on the terrace and elsewhere, retired to his own room and
went to bed.




CHAPTER X.


The next day when Armand Gervase went to call on the Princess
Ziska he was refused admittance. The Nubian attendant who kept
watch and ward at her gates, hearing the door-bell ring, contented
himself with thrusting his ugly head through an open upper window
and shouting--

"Madame est sortie!"

"Ou donc?" called Gervase in answer.

"A la campagne--le desert--les pyramides!" returned the Nubian, at
the same time banging the lattice to in order to prevent the
possibility of any further conversation. And Gervase, standing in
the street irresolutely for a moment, fancied he heard a peal of
malicious laughter in the distance.

"Beast!" he muttered, "I must try him with a money bribe next time