But what are you doing here ?" "Doing here! Why, my dear friend, I am at home here.

Dismount, I pray you, and come into my house." "Well, why not ?" replied Camors, with the same voice and manner of supreme indifference; and, throwing his bridle to the servant who followed him, he passed through the gardengate, led, supported, caressed by the trembling hand of Lescande.
The garden was small, but beautifully tended and full of rare plants.

At the end, a small villa, in the Italian style, showed its graceful porch.
"Ah, that is pretty!" exclaimed Camors, at last.
"And you recognize my plan, Number Three, do you not ?" asked Lescande, eagerly.
"Your plan Number Three?
Ah, yes, perfectly," replied Camors, absently.
"And your pretty little cousin--is she within ?" "She is there, my dear friend," answered Lescande, in a low voice--and he pointed to the closed shutters of a large window of a balcony surmounting the veranda.

"She is there; and this is our son." Camors let his hand pass listlessly over the child's hair.

"The deuce!" he said; "but you have not wasted time.