"No, except that Madame told me that he is immensely rich. A few days later father came over to Keswick and stayed a few days and met him. But the whole affair was most mysterious. I can't make it out," declared the girl. "Mr. Duperre never met him after all." "We must remain patient and watch," I urged. This we did, and very soon there came a strange development of that carefully planned introduction. One day, on entering Rayne's study, I found him in conversation with a tall, dark, fashionably dressed foreign woman--Spanish, I believed her to be. As I went in unexpectedly she seemed to have risen and assumed a fierce defiant attitude, while he, seated at his writing-table, was smoking one of his favorite expensive cigars and contemplating her with amusement. "My dear Madame," he said, laughing, "pray sit down and let us discuss the matter coolly. I do not wish you to act in any way to jeopardize yourself. I have made certain plans; it is for you and your friends to carry them out. And I know how clever is your friend Louis Larroca. So there is no need for apprehension. Besides, if you trust me, as you have done hitherto, you will find the whole affair works quite easily--and without the least risk to yourselves." Next second he realized that I had entered, and turning to me, said quite quietly: "I'm engaged just now, Hargreave." So I was forced to withdraw, full of wonder as to the nature of the latest conspiracy. I found that a hired car from a garage at Thirsk was awaiting the lady, who, I learned from the young footman, had given her name as Madame Martoz. A quarter of an hour later she drove away without, so far as I could discern, having seen either Duperre or his wife. Next day Rayne, whom I drove into York in the new two-seater Vauxhall, told me as we went along that he was having a small house-party on the following Thursday. "Just a few personal friends," he added. I smiled within myself, for I knew the character of the personal friends of "The Golden Face." Yet to my surprise, when Thursday came I found assembled half a dozen perfectly honest and respectable men and their wives, and in some cases their daughters. One was a London barrister, another a well-known member of Parliament, a third a rich Leeds manufacturer, while the others were more or less well known, and certainly all of the highest respectability. When Rayne gave a house-party he always did the thing well, and the days passed in a round of well-ordered enjoyment, motoring, golf, tennis and visits to neighbors to the full delight of everyone. In the evening there were dancing and billiards, Duperre being the life and soul of the smart party. On the fourth day, about twelve o'clock, Lola, who had made friends with Enid Claverton, the barrister's daughter, who was about the same age as herself, came to me in the garage, and said: "Mr. Lloyd, whom we met at Keswick, has just arrived. He's come on a visit. Father told me nothing about it. Did he tell you?"