The civil young clerk was temporarily engaged at the telephone. On the counter, the register lay open. The young and charming person bent over it with an air of idle curiosity. A specious air: long lashes veiled a quickly augmented brilliance in her pretty eyes, when they remarked a certain entry among the several made by the day's incoming guests.
Philip Barr and Valet?Red Wing, Arl.?-01.
Just then the Englishman looked idly round, and with a single, swift, sharp glance appraised the woman at his albow. A second glance saw everything else worth the seeing in the lobby - that none was looking their way: that the clerk was still preoccupied with the telephone. The envelope of his letter dropped noislessly upon the register, obscuring the entries in which the pretty lady was so indifferently interested.
She read the superscription on the envelope, and started ever so slightly.
Hon. Cunton Genlitim,
Hotel Baltimore.
New York, U. S. A.
The woman looked up with a sly little smile of perfect understanding. She said rapidly, with a strongly indicated accent:
"Bon Jour, Monster Oxen'am? How do you do? 'Ave you forgotten me. Madame Sa varan'.'"
"Forgotten you, dear lady?" Impossible!"
Punctiliously the Honorable Huston licked his heels, bowing from the waist over the daintily gloved hand which he touched his lips. 