“It is true, gentlemen” gravely said Major Hawke, “that I was invited to dinner at the marble house, but Madame Louison is a stranger to me, and I believe a tourist of some rank. It was merely a formal affair. I believe that she brought letters from Paris to Hugh Johnstone.” Late that night Alan Hawke laughed, as he pocketed his winnings at baccarat. “Three hundred pounds to the good! I’m a devil for luck!” And he sat down in his room to think over all the events of a day which had half turned his head. Warned by Justine Delande that Madame Louison was bidden to dine with Hugh Johnstone, Alan Hawke closely interrogated her. She evidently knew and suspected nothing. “Ah! Berthe plays a lone hand against the world,” he smiled. His mysterious employer had merely bidden him be ready to meet her there, without surprise. There was as yet no lightning move up on the chess board, and in vain he studied her resolute, smiling face. “All I can tell you,” murmured Justine to her handsome Mentor, in the seclusion of Ram Lal’s back room, “is that this Madame Berthe Louison comes to spend the day in looking over Hugh Johnstone’s art treasures. Nadine and I are to meet her, with the master. Do you know aught of her?” “Nothing, dear Justine,” unhesitatingly lied Alan Hawke. “Watch her and tell me all.” “I will,” smilingly replied the Swiss. “I have a strange fear that Hugh Johnstone has known her before, that he intends to marry her, and then to send us two, Nadine and I, away to a quiet life in Europe.” Whereupon Alan Hawke laughed loud and long. “She is only a bird of passage, some wealthy globe wanderer, perhaps even a sly adventuress. No, old Johnstone will not tempt Fortune.” “He has been so unusually amiable,” agnostically said Justine. “Of course he could hide such a design easily from Nadine, who knows nothing of love.” “She will learn! She will learn--in due time,” laughed Hawke. “There is but one thing possible. This whole pretended visit may be a sham--she may even be the belle amie of this old curmudgeon.” “I will watch all three of them! You shall know all!” murmured Justine, as she stole away, not without the kisses of her secret knight burning upon her lips.