MIZZI was there on the platform--a calm, exquisite Mizzi, who seemed to have grown more serene than ever during the five years since I had last seen her. "I knew you would come," she said, pressing my hand, and the accent was better--oh, _much_ better. She led me out of the station without saying a word except to hope that I had had a good journey. Then, in the station-yard, she gave the porter a few business-like directions about my hand-luggage, and find imperiously prevented me from summoning a cab. I soon saw the reason why. It came in the form of a smart motor equipage to seat six or eight passengers and emblazoned in gold letters on a blue background, "Hotel London." "You see," said Mizzi, as the chauffeur opened the door for us, "I haf got my omnibus...." Not till we were speeding along the sunlit boulevard did she mention Terry. And then she whispered: "Ever since I sent my telegraph I haf been wondering whether you will be angry. "Why?" She said: "I sent it because--because I felt I _must_ send it. But you--when you see him--you may think I haf brought you here on--what you call it?--a fool's errand?" "But why?" The car swerved round a corner and she almost fell into my arms. "When you see him," she said, "you may say to me, 'He iss not ill at all....' But--we cannot talk about it here.... In a few moments you will haf breakfast with me, and I will explain everything." "But surely--if we go to your place--Terry will see us?" "No. He does not know you are coming. You must tell him that you haf come here on some business.... And also, he will be at hiss work by now--he goes very early in the morning." "He's well enough to go to work, then?" She shrugged her shoulders, and answered: "That iss what I thought you would say. I am sure you will be very angry with me.... But wait--wait till I haf explained...." II The car turned into the Laudon Gasse, but it was not the familiar apartment-house that confronted me when, a moment later, I stepped out on to the pavement. It was the "Hotel London," with a frontage of eighty feet, and an electric sign over the entrance. And also there was an uniformed porter to attend to my luggage, a bureau, an Aufzug fur Personen, a Gastzimmer, and a notice declaring "English Spoken Here: On Parle Français; Si Parla Italiano...." Mizzi could see my astonishment as I penetrated further into such colossal metamorphosis; and I could see her pride. She said, almost apologetically: "It iss a very good hotel. Ass good ass the Bristol, but not so expensif.... My mother--did you know?--died two years ago, and the last thing she said wass to warn me not to do all this because it would not pay.... But--I do it--all the same--and it _does_ pay...." Five minutes later we were sitting together in her comfortably furnished sitting-room, with an English breakfast of ham-and-eggs before us. And she was trying to tell me why she had sent me that telegram.