"She has been brought up in France at a convent somewhere in the south, I believe.

I think I heard that this time she was to return to Brazil with her uncle." "I wonder," I asked, "if she is going to London with him ?" "Probably," Louis answered, "and if monsieur continues to patronize me," he continued, "he will certainly see more of them, for Monsieur Delora is a client who is always faithful to me." Notwithstanding its somewhat subdued air, there was all the time going on around us a cheerful murmur of conversation, the popping of corks, the laughter of women, the hurrying to and fro of waiters,--all the pleasant disturbance of an ordinary restaurant at the most festive hour of the night.

But there came, just at this moment, a curious interruption, an interruption curious not only on its own account, but on account of the effect which it produced.

From somewhere in the centre of the room there commenced ringing, softly at first, and afterwards with a greater volume, a gong, something like the siren of a motor-car, but much softer and more musical.

Instantly a dead silence seemed to fall upon the place.