Every language was being spoken, mostly German.

As a rule, such a gathering of people was, in its way, interesting to Hunterleys.

To-night his thoughts were truant.

He forgot his strenuous life of the last three months, the dangers and discomforts through which he had passed, the curious sequence of events which had brought him, full of anticipation, nerved for a crisis, to Monte Carlo of all places in the world.

He forgot that he was in the midst of great events, himself likely to take a hand in them.