"By God! I believe that she has been here before; she seems to be up to the whole game." Alan Hawke's steps hardly died away in the hallway before the beautiful Nemesis made a careful inspection of her splendid reception-room.

The splendors of its curtained arches, its fretted ceiling, and its frescoed walls were idly passed over, for the woman only made an exhaustive survey of its geometrical arrangement.

Marie Victor was in waiting at her side, and the mistress and maid were soon joined by Jules.

Throwing open the door of a little adjoining cabinet, Madame Louison whispered a few private directions to the ex-Communard.

"Do this at once yourself; none of the blacks are to know.