But this is no place to discuss the matter.

As soon as possible I would speak with you more fully in my office." The look of undisguised amazement upon Wells's face startled me; and as I glanced about me, wondering whom I might take counsel with, I was astonished to note the horse that Toinette had ridden standing with empty saddle.

De Croix, negligently curling his mustache between his slender fingers, gazed at me with a blank stare.
"Where is Mademoiselle ?" I questioned anxiously, as he remained silent.
"Surely she was with us as we came in!" "Pish! of course," he returned carelessly; "if she chooses to dismount and rejoin her friends, what has that to do with John Wayland?
Cannot the girl so much as move without your permission, Monsieur ?" The words were insolent, not less than the manner that accompanied them.
Instantly there flashed upon me the thought that this Frenchman sought a quarrel with me; but I could conceive no reason therefor, and was not greatly disposed to accommodate him.
"'T was no more than curiosity that urged my question," I answered, assuming not to notice his bravado.

"I was so deeply interested in other things as to have forgotten her presence." "Something no lady is ever likely to forgive," he interjected.

"But what think you they propose doing with us here ?" As if in direct answer to his question, the young officer who had met us without now elbowed his way through the throng, until he stood at our horses' heads.
"Gentlemen," he said, with a quick glance into our faces, "dismount and come within.