“People who drive along strange highways at night are apt to take the wrong road, are they not?” he replied, smiling. “But, madam, since your husband is not at home, I will go on again as soon as my horses are rested, if you prefer it,” he added. “Oh, no; there is no reason why you should do that, sir. Make yourself as comfortable as you can while you are here. You will excuse me, of course—and, as I probably will not be up when you leave in the morning, I will also say good-by.” She inclined her head, and was gone before he could venture a protest. He had hoped that she would be inclined to remain and talk with him for a while, but such a proceeding was evidently furthest from her thoughts. And so Nick Carter found himself alone, almost as soon as the purpose of his visit was achieved. For he had accomplished the purpose of that visit, almost as soon as he saw Juno and heard her speak. He had satisfied himself of two things; one was that he had never seen her before, and the other was that he would be able to recognize her again under any circumstances. For a time after she left him he remained standing where he had risen to bid her good night, watching the closed door by which she had passed from the room. He was thinking to himself: “A wonderful woman! Truly a remarkable woman—and as beautiful as she is remarkable. No person who has ever seen her face and looked into her eyes could forget either; no one who has ever heard the sound of her voice could forget it. She has a wonderful charm; a quick intelligence; a keen perception.” He stopped at that expression, “a keen perception.” He asked himself if by any possibility her perceptions were sufficiently keen to have suggested to her the explanation of his call there; and he replied to his own thought: “If she is the sort of woman I have believed her to be she would not be deceived by the explanation I offered of my presence here. She would know at once that I did not come here by accident.” However, if Juno knew or guessed such a thing, she did not show it at all. She had acted throughout in a perfectly natural manner. The most critical could have had no fault to find with her conduct, or with her manner of receiving the detective. The negress, Liza, entered the room a moment later, evidently sent there by her mistress, and the detective followed her to the room that had been assigned to him. An old-fashioned teester bed, surmounted by a resplendent canopy, waited there to receive him, and he was tired enough to have taken advantage of its comforts at once; but another duty demanded his attention first. From the lining of his coat, where he had cut a place to receive it, he drew forth several sheets of drawing paper; from another pocket, pencils; and then he drew forward under the light the drop leaf mahogany table, and set himself to work on a reproduction of the features of the beautiful woman who had entertained him so short a time.