The strong clean-shaven face calls for no description here; it was the face of M. Gaston Max.

M. Max, having locked the study door, and carefully tried it to make certain of its security, descended the stairs.  He peeped out cautiously into the street ere setting foot upon the pavement; but no one was in sight at the moment, and he emerged quickly, closing the door behind him, and taking shelter under the newsagent’s awning.  The rain continued its steady downpour, but M. Max stood there softly humming a little French melody until a taxi-cab crawled into view around the Greek Street corner.

He whistled shrilly through his teeth—­the whistle of a gamin; and the cabman, glancing up and perceiving him, pulled around into the turning, and drew up by the awning.

M. Max entered the cab.

“To Frascati’s,” he directed.

The cabman backed out into Greek Street and drove off.  This was the hour when the theaters were beginning to eject their throngs, and outside one of them, where a popular comedy had celebrated its three-hundred-and-fiftieth performance, the press of cabs and private cars was so great that M. Max found himself delayed within sight of the theater foyer.

Those patrons of the comedy who had omitted to order vehicles or who did not possess private conveyances, found themselves in a quandary tonight, and amongst those thus unfortunately situated, M. Max, watching the scene with interest, detected a lady whom he knew—­none other than the delightful American whose conversation had enlivened his recent journey from Paris—­Miss Denise Ryland.  She was accompanied by a charming companion, who, although she was wrapped up in a warm theater cloak, seemed to be shivering disconsolately as she and her friend watched the interminable stream of vehicles filing up before the theater, and cutting them off from any chance of obtaining a cab for themselves.

M. Max acted promptly.

“Drive into that side turning!” he directed the cabman, leaning out of the window.  The cabman followed his directions, and M. Max, heedless of the inclement weather, descended from the cab, dodged actively between the head lamps of a big Mercedes and the tail-light of a taxi, and stood bowing before the two ladies, his hat pressed to his bosom with one gloved hand, the other, ungloved, resting upon the gold knob of the malacca.

“Why!” cried Miss Ryland, “if it isn’t...  M. Gaston!  My dear ...  M. Gaston!  Come under the awning, or”—­her head was wagging furiously—­“you will be... simply drowned.”

M. Max smilingly complied.

“This is M. Gaston,” said Denise Ryland, turning to her companion, “the French gentleman... whom I met... in the train from...  Paris.  This is Miss Helen Cumberly, and I know you two will get on... famously.”

M. Max acknowledged the presentation with a few simple words which served to place the oddly met trio upon a mutually easy footing.  He was, par excellence, the polished cosmopolitan man of the world.