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Marcelle, you will not leave me ?" "Never, miss, ma'am--that is, your ladyship." Thus it befell that Curtis was ready with the name of a prominent hotel in Fifth Avenue when the driver halted in Madison Avenue.

He made his choice almost at random, but selected one of the newest uptown caravanserais, merely because it lay a considerable distance from 27th Street.

Otherwise, his object in picking a large hotel being to avoid notice among a fashionable throng, he might easily have taken his "wife" to the Waldorf-Astoria, in which event certain complications even then hot in the making would not have followed their intricate course, while Hermione's future must have been affected most powerfully.
"I suppose you are prepared to submit to certain conditions which govern this new venture ?" said Curtis, when the cab was once more speeding onward to a definite goal.
"What are they ?" It would be scarcely fair to describe Hermione's tone as suspicious, for she was a loyal soul, and was wondering in her heart of hearts what manner of man this knight errant could be; but his very self-possession fluttered her; she had been so accustomed to think and act in her own defense that she experienced a subtle fear of this calm, cool-headed, masterful person whom she must learn to regard as her husband.
"Well,"-- Curtis's speech was so unemotional that he might have been describing one of his Manchurian railway schemes--"we must treat each other with a certain familiarity--even use little endearments--in public--and address each other by pet names--mine is Chow." Despite her troubles, the girl laughed, and Curtis recalled the tinkle of silver bells in a temple at evening on the banks of the far-away Wei-ho.
"But that is the name of a dog!" she tittered.
"Yes.