The two gentlemen returned my bow with well-bred negligence, and I started on my soup. As I finished it, I looked up and saw my companions interchanging glances. Catching my eye, they both looked away in an absent fashion, each the while taking out of his pocket a red silk handkerchief and laying it on the table by him. I turned away for a moment, then suddenly looked again and found their eyes on me, and I fancied that the next moment the eyes wandered from me to the handkerchiefs. I happened to be carrying a red handkerchief myself, and, thinking either that something was in the wind or perhaps that my friends were having a joke at my expense (though, as I said, they looked well-bred men), I took it out of my pocket and, laying it on the table, gazed calmly in front of me, my eyes naturally falling on the fair young man. He nodded significantly to the older man, and held out his hand to me. I shook hands with him, and went through the same ceremony with the other. "Ah!" said the young man, speaking in French, "you got her letter?" I nodded. "And you are willing?" The first maxim for a would-be adventurer is always to say "yes" to questions. A "no," is fatal to further progress. "Yes," I answered. "It will be made worth your while, of course," he went on. I thought I ought to resent this suggestion. "Sir," I said, "you cannot possibly mean to suggest----" The young man laughed pleasantly. "My dear fellow," he said, "ladies have their own ways of paying debts. If you don't like it----" and he shrugged his shoulders. "Oh," said I, smiling, "I misunderstood you." "It is, of course," said the older man, speaking for the first time, and in a loud whisper, "of vital importance that His Royal Highness' name should not appear." This really began to be mysterious and interesting. I nodded. "That goes without saying," said the young man. "And you'll be ready?" "Ready!" I said. "But when?" "Didn't I tell you? Oh, six o'clock to-morrow morning." "That's early hours." "Well, you must, you know," he answered. "And," added the older man, "the countess hopes you'll come to breakfast afterward at ten." "I'll be there, never fear," said I, "and it's very kind." "Bravo!" said the young man, clapping me on the shoulder (for we had risen from table). "You take it the right way." As may be supposed, I was rather puzzled by this time, and decidedly vexed to find I should have to be up so early. Still, the mention of His Royal Highness and the countess decided me to go on for the present; probably the real man--for, unless it were all a mad joke, there must be a real man--would appear in the course of the evening. I only hoped my new friends would, in their turn, take it in the right way when that happened. "Have you a servant with you?" asked the young man, as we said good-night. "No," said I; "I am quite alone." "You are a paragon of prudence," he answered, smiling. "Well, I'll call you, and we'll slip out quietly."