CHAPTER TEN.
TINKER'S FOUNDLING On the following afternoon Tinker met Madame de Belle-Ile hurrying out of the hotel in a scarlet travelling costume.
At the sight of him she stopped short and cried, "Have you heard the sad news ?" "No; what sad news ?" said Tinker.
"About poor Monsieur Courtnay! He has had an accident; he is laid up at Nice, ill among strangers! I go; I fly to nurse him!" "Nurse that brute!" said Tinker quickly.

"That--that is a waste of kindness." Madame de Belle-Ile's face fell, and then flushed with anger.

"You are a horrid and detestable boy!" she cried angrily.
"Oh, no! I'm not! It's quite true," said Tinker quietly, and he looked at her seriously.

He wanted to warn her; then he saw that he could not do so without revealing Claire's secret.

"I wish I could tell you about him," he went on.