"Burton, I saw Miss Sharp and her family in the _Bois_--do you know their address by chance?--I want to ring up and find out if they got home all right." Burton could see my anxiety--and actually hurried in his reply! "They live in Auteuil, Sir Nicholas, but I can't exactly say where--the young lady never seems very particular to give me the address. She said I should not be needing it, and that they were likely to move." "Get on to the Duchesse de Courville-Hautevine as quickly as you can--." Burton did so at once, but it seemed a long time. --No, Madame la Duchesse was down at Hautevine taking some fresh convalescents, and would not return until the middle of the week--if then! I nearly swore aloud--. "Are they talking from the _concierge's_ lodge or the hotel?--Burton ask at both if they know the address of a Miss Sharp who brings bandages to the hospital!" Of course by this time the connection had been cut off, and it took quite ten minutes to get on again, and by that time I could have yelled aloud with the feverish fret of it all, and the pain! No one knew anything of a "Mees Shearp." "Mees Shearp--_Mais non_!" Many ladies brought bandages, _hein_?! I mastered myself as well as I could and got into my chair--. And in a few moments Burton brought me a brandy and soda, and put it into my hand. "It won't be cleared up enough to go back to Versailles before dinner, Sir Nicholas," he said--and coughed--"I was just thinking maybe--you'd be liking some friends to come in and dine--Pierre can get something in from the restaurant, if you'd feel inclined." The cough meant that Burton knows I am dreadfully upset, and that under the circumstances anything to distract me is the lesser of two evils--! "Ask whom you please," I answered and drank the brandy and soda down. Presently, after half an hour, Burton came back to me, beaming--I had been sitting in my chair too exhausted even to feel pain meanwhile--. He had telephoned everywhere, and no one was in town, but at last, at the Ritz, where the _concierge_ knows all my friends, he had been informed that Mrs. Bruce (Nina) had arrived the night before, alone--he had got connected up at her _appartement_, and she would be ''round at eight o'clock, very pleased to dine!' Nina!--A pleasant thrill ran through me--Nina, and without Jim--! The wood fire was burning brightly, and the curtains were drawn when Nina, fresh as a rose, came in--. "Nicholas!" she cried delightedly--and held out both hands. "Nina!--this is a pleasure, you old dear!--now let me look at you and see what marriage has done--." Nina drew back and laughed! "Everything, Nicholas!" she said--. A feeling of envy came over me--Jim's ankle is stiff for life--it seems hard that an eye can make such a difference!--Nina is in love with Jim, but no woman can be in love with me. Her face is much softer, she is more attractive altogether. "You look splendid, Nina," I told her--"I want to hear all about it."