"Nicky is well enough to telephone?" "Not to come to the telephone, but there is a servant. If you will please stop somewhere. I shall be a moment only." Marie Louise felt that she ought not to stop, but she could hardly kidnap the man. So she drew up at a shop and von Gröner left her, her heart shaking her with a faint tremor like that of the engine of her car. Von Gröner returned promptly, but he said: "I think we should not go too straight to your father's house. Might be we are followed. We can tell soon. Go in the park, please, and suddenly stop, turn round, and I look at what cars follow." She let him command her. She was letting everybody command her; she had no destination, no North Star in her life. Von Gröner kept her dodging about Regent's Park till she grew angry. "This seems rather silly, doesn't it? I am going home. Sir Joseph has worries enough without--" "Ah, he has worries?" She did not answer. The eagerness in his voice did not please her. He kept up a rain of questions, too, but she answered them all by referring him to Sir Joseph. At last they reached the house. As they got out, two men closed in on the car and peered into their faces. Von Gröner snapped at them, and they fell back. Marie Louise had taken along her latchkey. She opened the door herself and led von Gröner to Sir Joseph's room. As she lifted her hand to knock she heard Lady Webling weeping frantically, crying out something incoherent. Marie Louise fell back and motioned von Gröner away, but he pushed the door open and, taking her by the elbow, thrust her forward. Lady Webling stopped short with a wail. Sir Joseph, who had been trying to quiet her by patting her hand, paused with his palm uplifted. Before Marie Louise could speak she saw that the old couple was not alone. By the mantel stood Mr. Verrinder. By the door, almost touching Marie Louise, was a tall, grim person she had not seen. He closed the door behind von Gröner and Marie Louise. Mr. Verrinder said, "Be good enough to sit down." To von Gröner he said, "How are you, Bickford?" CHAPTER V Sir Joseph was staring at the new-comer, and his German nativity told him what Marie Louise had not been sure of, that von Gröner was no German. When Verrinder gave him an English name it shook Marie Louise with a new dismay. Sir Joseph turned from the man to Marie Louise and demanded: "Marie Louise, you ditt not theenk this man is a Cherman?" This one more shame crushed Marie Louise. She dropped into a chair, appealing feebly to the man she had retrieved: "Your name is not von Gröner?" Bickford grinned. "Well, in a manner of speakin'. You might say it's my pen-name. Not that I've ever been in the pen--except with Nicky." "Nicky is in the-- He's not ill?" "Well, he's a bit sick. He was a bit seasick to start with, and when we gave him the collar--well, he doesn't like his room." "But his letters--" Marie Louise pleaded, her fears racing ahead of her questions.