"Thank you," she said stiffly. "I wonder, in that case, that my father did not communicate with me himself. Am I to understand that you are his messenger? And am I to content myself with the bare knowledge, and only on your assurance, that my father is detained on business, and may or may not return to-night?" "That's as you choose, Miss Carleton," I made answer, somewhat foolishly. "You have the advantage of me, sir," she replied icily, "for, to the best of my belief, you and I have never met before. Is that not so?" It is a woman's prerogative to forget or to remember, as her instinct or her inclinations dictates, and, in view of the somewhat unusual and unconventional circumstances of our first meeting, I was by no means sure that I did not like and admire her the more, rather than the less, for the way in which she had met the situation. Unhesitatingly I fathered the lie, and with similar hardihood. "That is so," I replied coldly. Rightly or wrongly, I fancied that she softened slightly, so feeling that I should do myself more justice if I told my story while her manner was less freezing, I came to the point at once. "May I tell you what I know, and how I came to know, of the business which has detained your father?" I inquired. "I shall not keep you many minutes." "I shall be curious to hear it," she answered, speaking more graciously than hitherto, and, seating herself in a dark corner where I could not see her face, she prepared to listen. I told the thing well, better--though, of course, much more briefly--than I have told it in these pages, for the excitement with which she listened, suppressed and controlled though it was, seemed to communicate itself to me. The only moment when she bristled, if I may use so inapplicable a word about so lovely a woman, was at the start. "All that I have to tell has happened within the last twenty-four hours," I began, "for only yesterday I was taking a country holiday, and, I fear, kicking up my heels like a mischievous colt who has broken out of bounds, and is sadly in need of a sound whipping to teach him to behave himself. But," I made haste to get on, for the air around me seemed suddenly to turn chilly, "since then, short time ago as it is, I have had a 'breaking in,' and been made to answer to lash and spur, and to look death in the face, and to fight for my life, in so extraordinary a way, that my only fear is you'll not believe my story when you hear it."