“You do not understand, madam,” he resumed, “you surprise me! I imagine you have not failed to notice the marked attentions, to say no more, paid you by our common friend, M. Ascott? Oh! never deny it, madam! To-night, as indeed he does habitually, M. Ascott has made the most determined efforts to win your favour.” There was almost a touch of mockery in the words, and Sonia Danidoff was too quick-witted not to catch the other’s drift. “It would seem,” she said, “these efforts do not strike you, sir, as having been crowned with success! you think my conquest is not an accomplished fact yet?” “I do not think, madam ... _I hope_.” And with these two little words which meant so much, which were equivalent to the most formal of declarations, Tom Bob, like a well-advised suitor, aware that a man must never demand an answer but always wait till it is offered, made his bow to the princess and walked away. “I am going to call your carriage,” he said. The company was, in fact, rising from table; it was growing very chilly and the time was come to think of quitting the Bois for the city. Everywhere the guests were exchanging farewells, then the women of fashion, escorted by their _cavaliere servente_, made for their elegant broughams or sumptuous automobiles. All were leaving, and leaving all at the same time, to return together as far as the barrier of the Porte Dauphine, when the final adieux would be exchanged. All together? No, not so. There was one fair lady, at any rate, who did not intend to make one of the merry crowd. Indeed, the Grand Duchess Alexandra showed not the slightest desire to quit the table at which she had sat from the very beginning of the evening, isolated, sullen almost! She had never ceased her watch of the official guests, and above all had not failed to mark the flattering attentions and manifestations of sympathy lavished everywhere on Tom Bob. Now her eyes were fixed askance on the Princess Sonia Danidoff, the acknowledged queen of the festivity, as she took the arm the detective offered. The white teeth of the Grand Duchess Alexandra were nervously biting her lip. The noble lady was doubtless thinking with acute agitation how she was the mistress of Fantômas and that this hero of the hour was the very same man who had sworn to bring her lover to the scaffold! But it was high time to be gone, and the grand duchess summoned her _chasseur_. “Call up my car,” she ordered, “but tell my chauffeur he is carefully to avoid returning with the rest of the company; he is to drive by the less frequented roads. I do not care to be compelled to greet all these folks, who, luckily, have so far neither seen nor recognized me.” The menial bowed and went his way, but he was back again next minute. “Your Highness’s chauffeur,” he said, “has to inform your Highness that an accident has happened to the car; he is busy repairing the damage, but it will take a good half-hour. Your Highness does not wish me to go for a hired carriage?”