He saw again the simple wedding of the morning, and heard once more those touching words "I, Eric, take thee, Florence." Then his eyes sought the face of Alixe Delavigne in a burning glance, which caused that lady to seek her own bower in Rosebank villa, and hide her blushes from "Him Who Would Not Be Denied." Miss Mildred smiled and nodded behind her fan, for she heard the Bells of the Future sounding afar off.
The graceful woman escorted Captain Anstruther to the river's edge that night, when he departed to a conference of moment with Hardwicke and Halton.

She fled back, like the swift Camilla, to her own nest, as the Captain went forth upon the river.

Only the listening flowers heard her startled answer when Anstruther had found a voice to tell the Pilgrim of Love his own story in a soldier's frank way.

"Wait, Anson! Wait, till you know me better, till our quest is done; wait till the roses bloom here once more," she had whispered.
"And if I do wait, Alixe--if I ask you again ?" Anstruther cried as he kissed her slender hand.
"Then you shall have my answer," she faltered, but her eyes shone like stars as she lightly fled away.
Captain Anson Anstruther had reckoned without his host when he rejoiced over Alan Hawke's departure.

As the aide-de-camp sped down the darkened river, he still saw Alixe Delavigne's eyes gleaming down on him in every tender twinkling star, but the wily agent whom he had dispatched to the Continent four days before, was near him yet, and comfortably dining in a little snug public in the Tower Hamlets, on this very night.