"Why do you suppose he wants to see you?" she asked, after a moment, turning toward me again. She was as calm as a summer breeze. All trace of nervousness had left her. "I can't even supply a guess." "You must be very, very tactful," she said uneasily. "I know him so well. He is very cunning." "I am accustomed to dealing with villains," said I. "They always come to a bad end in my books, and virtue triumphs." "But this isn't a book," she protested. "Besides virtue never triumphs in an international marriage. You must come--to see me to-night after you return from town. I won't sleep until I've heard everything." "I may be very late," I said, contriving to hide my eagerness pretty well, I thought. "I shall wait for you, Mr. Smart," she said, very distinctly. I took it as a command and bowed in submission. "There is no one here to gossip, so we may be as careless as we please about appearances. You will be hungry, too, when you come in. I shall have a nice supper ready for you." She frowned faintly. "You must not, under any circumstance, spoil everything by having supper with _him._" "Again I repeat, you may trust me implicitly to do the right thing," said I beamingly. "And now, what do you say to our trip to the bottom of the castle?" She shook her head. "Not with the house full of spies, my dear friend. We'll save that for another day. A rainy day perhaps. I feel like having all the sunshine I can get to-day. To-night I shall be gloomy and very lonely. I shall take Rosemary and Jinko out upon the top of the tower and play all day in the sun." I had an idea. "I am sure I should enjoy a little sunshine myself. May I come too?" She looked me straight in the eye. There was a touch of dignity in her voice when she spoke. "Not to-day, Mr. Smart." A most unfathomable person! CHAPTER XI I AM INVITED TO SPEND MONEY Any one who has travelled in the Valley of the Donau knows the Rempf Hotel. It is an ancient hostelry, frequented quite as much in these days as it was in olden times by people who are by way of knowing the excellence of its cuisine and the character of its wines. Unless one possesses this intelligence, either through hearsay or experience, he will pass by the Rempf without so much as a glance at its rather forbidding exterior and make for the modern hotel on the platz, thereby missing one of the most interesting spots in this grim old town. Is it to the fashionable Bellevue that the nobility and the elect wend their way when they come to town? Not by any means. They affect the Rempf, and there you may see them in fat, inglorious plenty smugly execrating the plebeian rich of many lands who dismiss Rempf's with a sniff, and enjoying to their heart's content a privacy which the aforesaid rich would not consider at any price.