His life, he felt, could never be again as it had been before, and he sighed deeply as he recalled his talk with the old prime minister at Geneva.
Then he laughed quietly as he remembered Chauvenet and Durand and the dark house on the Boulevard Froissart; but the further recollection of the attack made on his life on the deck of the _King Edward_ sobered him, and he turned away from the window impatiently.

He had seen the sick second-cabin passenger leave the steamer at New York, but had taken no trouble either to watch or to avoid him.

Very likely the man was under instructions, and had been told to follow the Claibornes home; and the thought of their identification with himself by his enemies angered him.
Chauvenet was likely to appear in Washington at any time, and would undoubtedly seek the Claibornes at once.

The fact that the man was a scoundrel might, in some circumstances, have afforded Armitage comfort, but here again Armitage's mood grew dark.

Jules Chauvenet was undoubtedly a rascal of a shrewd and dangerous type; but who, pray, was John Armitage?
The bell in his entry rang, and he flashed on the lights and opened the door.
"Well, I like this! Setting yourself up here in gloomy splendor and never saying a word.