“Well!”

The monosyllable was suggestive, almost illuminative. Gertrude had paused for a moment on the threshold of the little salon, which she was entering from her bedchamber. Her unexpected visitor, Mr. Cornelius Blunn, looked across at her with a deprecating smile.

“I am a monument of apologies, Princess,” he said.

“We will take them for granted, then,” she replied. “What do you want?”

He glanced at the clock.

“Five minutes’ conversation,” he begged, “or, if by any fortunate chance, you are disengaged—”

“You know quite well that I am dining with Mr. Slattery,” she interrupted.

“I had imagined so,” he assented. “It is about that dinner engagement that I venture to come and see you.”

“You will, I trust, avoid impertinence.”

“I shall try,” he assured her. “Princess, your mission here was a difficult one. So far you have performed it with much skill.”

“I am flattered,” she murmured, with latent irony.

“I may or may not share your opinion as to Mr. Grant Slattery,” he continued, “but, in other respects, you have done well. I am here to beg you not to spoil the good effects of your work.”

“Will you please say what you want to in as few and as plain words as possible,” she invited.

“I obey,” he answered, with a little bow. “You came here to try and solve for us a somewhat vexed question concerning this young man, Mr. Grant Slattery. You think that you have arrived at the truth concerning him. I am going to be frank with you and tell you that I am not so sure. But I am convinced of one thing,—you have gone as far as Otto would approve in your investigations.”

“You think that I am likely to lose my head about this man?” she asked.

Blunn made no reply. She waited for a moment and then glanced towards the clock.

“Otto is my friend,” he went on, “and Otto, as you know, is of a very jealous temperament. I think you would be wiser to cancel your dinner engagement for this evening.”

“For a clever man,” she said deliberately, “I think you are the biggest fool I ever knew.”

“I am your husband’s friend, and yours,” he reminded her quietly.

“Listen,” she continued. “Otto sent me here and you know my mission. I shall perform it in just the way I think best. What there is to be said about my methods can come from him. You mean well, I think, but anything which you said would be useless.”

“Princess,” Mr. Blunn remonstrated, “you’re a young woman and you have the strong will of your nationality. I am an elderly man and I claim the right of speaking to you frankly. You are going to spend the evening with a man whom three years ago you treated disgracefully. The instinct for atonement is a very dangerous thing.”

“Perhaps,” she admitted. “At any rate, I am my own mistress. What I choose to give, I give, and nothing that you could say, no threat that you could utter, would induce me to change.”

“Your mind is made up. Princess?”

“My mind is utterly and finally made up.”

There was a knock at the door. A messenger from below announced the arrival of a gentleman for Madame la Princesse.

“You can show him up,” Gertrude directed.

The man bowed and left the room. Blunn looked across at her and frowned.

“You will receive him here, in your salon?” he asked.

“Certainly,” she replied. “If it pleased me to do so I should dine here. I am responsible to no one for what I may choose to do.”

Still he made no movement to depart.

“It seems to be my hard fate to anger you, Princess,” he regretted. “And I can assure you that such is not my desire. Yet this I must tell you, that I am used to men, and watching men, and turning them inside out, judging them from their characters and actions and the trifles which escape other people. I have never yet been wrong. This man Slattery is, in my opinion, all that we believed him to be. In my opinion, he is playing a game of his own with you. You think that you have discovered him harmless; you think that his devotion to you is real. You are wrong. You are wrong in both conclusions.”

She smiled. At that moment she was praying that the confidence which her smile was intended to indicate really existed in her heart.

“I think,” she declared, “that a woman is the best judge of a man’s affection for her. I may put Mr. Slattery’s to the test. If I do, I have no fears.”

There was a knock at the door. Grant was ushered in. Gertrude gave him her fingers. He raised them to his lips and turned towards Blunn.

“Have no fear,” the latter said. “I am an uninvited guest and I was just taking my leave. Princess, you will allow me once more to assure you that I never make a mistake.”

She laughed a little scornfully.

“The Kingdom of Fools is peopled by the men who never make mistakes,” she answered.

The door closed upon Blunn. She came a little nearer to Grant.

“What did that fellow want?” he demanded.

“To warn me against you,” she replied.

“What a busybody!”

“He has disappointed me,” she remarked. “I never dreamed that he was the sort of person who would come and talk to a woman as her husband’s friend. Such a terribly obvious attitude.”

“And how ignorant he showed himself of you and your capacity for resistance.”

She came a little nearer to him, raised her eyes, and stood for a moment silent.

“Do you remember the last time you kissed me. Grant?”

“Perfectly well,” he answered. “I stayed with you half an hour after we got back from the opera. I must have interfered with your packing, I’m afraid.”

He saw her wince, but he remained unmoved. He was smiling at her pleasantly, regarding her with genuine admiration.

“You look wonderful to-night, Gertrude,” he said.

“Then why don’t you want to kiss me?” she asked.

“A psychological problem insoluble before dinner,” he assured her with faint irony.

“Then you don’t want to,” she persisted.

He leaned forward, holding her for a moment in his arms, yet gently resisting the abandon of her swaying body. He kissed her on the eyes, drew her hand through his arm, and turned towards the door.

“Five minutes later and Louis would never forgive me,” he said. “He is preparing for us—”

The sentence was never finished. The door was suddenly opened without a knock or any form of warning. A man, in travelling clothes, and carrying a small despatch case, entered.

“Otto!” Gertrude exclaimed, disengaging her arm from Grant’s. “How on earth did you get here—to-night?”

He frowned irritably.

“I sent a telegram,” he replied. “You did not, perhaps, receive it. We found a quicker route. May I be presented to this gentleman?”

“It is Mr. Grant Slattery,” Gertrude murmured. “My husband, Prince von Diss.”

The two men bowed. Neither extended a hand.

“You can scarcely expect me to bid you welcome very heartily,” Grant said, with a secret strain of thanksgiving in his heart. “I was to have had the pleasure of taking your wife out to dinner.”

Prince von Diss glanced around him. He had a most unpleasant face, short, fair moustache, carefully trimmed, well-cut features, a wicked mouth, and cold, unprepossessing eyes. He was very nearly bald.

“I was not aware, Gertrude,” he observed, “that it was your custom to receive your friends in your salon at an hotel of this description.”

“I do as I think well in such matters,” she answered calmly.

There was a moment’s hectic silence. The Prince seemed about to speak but controlled himself with an effort.

“You are probably fatigued with travelling,” she continued, “and would prefer to dine here. In that case I can keep my engagement with Mr. Slattery.”

“On the contrary, I shall beg you to break it,” the Prince declared emphatically. “It is a peculiarity of mine, but I do not permit my wife to dine alone with any man so long as I am within reach. I shall hope to have another opportunity of cultivating Mr. Slattery’s acquaintance.”

“I will provide you with one gladly,” Grant answered, without hesitation.

Gertrude laid her hand upon his arm.

“I do not allow my friends to quarrel with my husband,” she said. “I am very sorry indeed about our dinner. Grant. When will you come and see me?”

“Whenever you choose, Gertrude.”

“To-morrow at four o’clock. You will take tea with me here. In the meantime I cannot tell you how much I regret our dinner.”

Grant was suddenly conscious of the ridiculous side of the situation. He pulled himself together and turned to the newcomer courteously.

“Perhaps you, as well as your wife, would do me the honour of dining?” he suggested. “Dinner is ordered downstairs. Half-an-hour’s delay will be of no consequence.”

The Prince bowed coldly.

“I thank you very much, sir,” he replied, “but to-night I shall prefer to dine tete-a-tete with my wife. I have affairs to attend to. We shall without doubt meet again.”

Grant dined alone in a distant corner of the restaurant, somewhat to his own satisfaction, but very much to the disappointment of the maitre d’h?tel to whom he had confided his orders. Just as he was finishing, Gertrude and her husband entered the room. The latter had changed his clothes but appeared to be in no better humour. He scowled at Grant and ignored his wife, both when he ordered the dinner and the wine. She leaned back i............