"Of course, madame," she said, with a certain submissiveness which surprised Ricardo. "I hope I have not kept you waiting." She ran to the cloak-room, and came back again with her cloak. "Good-bye, Harry," she said, dwelling upon his name and looking out upon him with soft and smiling eyes. "I shall see you to-morrow evening," he said, holding her hand. Again she let it stay within his keeping, but she frowned, and a sudden gravity settled like a cloud upon her face. She turned to the elder woman with a sort of appeal. "No, I do not think we shall be here, to-morrow, shall we, madame?" she said reluctantly. "Of course not," said madame briskly. "You have not forgotten what we have planned? No, we shall not be here to-morrow; but the night after--yes." Celia turned back again to Wethermill. "Yes, we have plans for to-morrow," she said, with a very wistful note of regret in her voice; and seeing that madame was already at the door, she bent forward and said timidly, "But the night after I shall want you." "I shall thank you for wanting me," Wethermill rejoined; and the girl tore her hand away and ran up the steps. Harry Wethermill returned to the rooms. Mr. Ricardo did not follow him. He was too busy with the little problem which had been presented to him that night. What could that girl, he asked himself, have in common with the raddled woman she addressed so respectfully? Indeed, there had been a note of more than respect in her voice. There had been something of affection. Again Mr. Ricardo found himself wondering in what street in Bohemia Celia dwelt--and as he walked up to the hotel there came yet other questions to amuse him. "Why," he asked, "could neither Celia nor madame come to the Villa des Fleurs to-morrow night? What are the plans they have made? And what was it in those plans which had brought the sudden gravity and reluctance into Celia's face?" Ricardo had reason to remember those questions during the next few days, though he only idled with them now. CHAPTER II A CRY FOR HELP It was on a Monday evening that Ricardo saw Harry Wethermill and the girl Celia together. On the Tuesday he saw Wethermill in the rooms alone and had some talk with him. Wethermill was not playing that night, and about ten o'clock the two men left the Villa des Fleurs together. "Which way do you go?" asked Wethermill. "Up the hill to the Hotel Majestic," said Ricardo.