Dick stepped forward, and his two guards returned to the coach. The servant showed the way up a staircase with a handsome balustrade, and thence through one of the doors that opened from the corridor, to a rich and elegant apartment, its ceiling painted with mythological pictures, its walls decorated with arabesques and medallions. At a magnificently carved and ornamented desk at the farther end of the room, sat a gentleman of striking appearance, slender and noble-looking, but haughty and stiff. The splendid armchair in which he sat was turned sidewise towards the desk, so that the gentleman, who leaned upon one elbow, faced Dick as the latter entered. Dick stood at a distance, and bowed low, the distance being warranted by the singularly cold look of the gentleman in the chair. It served, in the soft candle-light, to keep Dick's features vague. Dick cast a look at the servant, whereupon the gentleman motioned the latter from the room. Then, his coat still clutched tight over his swords, Dick said: "Is it Monsieur Necker I have the honor of addressing?" "If you are a clerk in the General Control Office you must know that it is," said the gentleman, in a dry tone. "But I am not a clerk in the General Control Office," said Dick, quietly. "I am, through a strange accident, the chosen instrument of a secret society whose object is to kill you. Don't think I am a madman. What I say is perfectly true. I have taken an oath that requires me to make an attempt upon your life. But that obligation, through lack of foresight, does not forbid my giving you means of defending yourself; therefore," and here Dick opened wide his coat, and held forth a sword, "I offer you one of these swords, and beg you to stand on guard. Don't call for help. If you do that, I must save myself by having at you immediately. Take the sword, I advise you, for I certainly intend to attack you." Monsieur Necker had risen, and he stood looking at Dick in the most profound astonishment. [Illustration: "'OH, YOU HAVE A VISITOR! MON DIEU, SILVIUS!'"] "Why do you keep us waiting, papa?" came a voice from a suddenly opened doorway, and a moment later a slender figure followed the voice into the room. "Oh, you have a visitor! _Mon Dieu_, Silvius!" "_Mon Dieu_, Amaryllis!" Dick's lips went through the motions of these words, but what he uttered were rather the shadows or ghosts of words than words themselves. He continued unconsciously to hold out the sword towards her father, while gazing at her. "What does it mean, papa?" she asked, in a hushed voice that betokened vague alarm. "Silvius, what are you doing with those swords?"