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“Can I speak to you now—without interruption?”

“Would you prefer to be here or in the house?”

“It is all one to me if you will listen seriously.”

“Then let us speak here; it is my favourite walk.” And we turned into the broad path circling a fountain and surrounded by flower beds abundantly filled and carefully tended. “Now, monsieur.”

“In the night I thought over all the strange situation, and this morning came to a decision.”

“There must be of course a decision one way or the other,” she put in when I paused.

“You will understand that before I came here I had no idea I was to meet you. I expected to have to deal only with M. Boreski.”

“That was part of my intention. In that I misled you, I know.”

“It is nothing compared to the deception I have practised upon you; and I can only plead the excuse that I should not have done it under any inducements had I known of you. Please believe that.”

“Deception? How do you mean?”

“I am not the Emperor, mademoiselle; I am only what I have asked you to regard me—a plain American citizen, Harper C. Denver.”