“I’m in no humor for joking, Dickey.”

“It won’t be a joke, my boy.  Now, tell me just what you wrote to her.  Gad, I never knew what trouble meant until I struck Brussels.  The hot water here is scalding me to a creamy consistency.”

“I simply said that she had no right to treat me as she did to-day and that she shall listen to me.  I ended the note by saying I would come to her to-night, and that I would not be driven away until I had seen her,”

“You can’t see her if she refuses to receive you.”

“But she will see me.  She’s fair enough to give me a chance.”

“Do you want me to accompany you?8’

“I intend to go alone.”

“You will find Ugo there, you know.  It is bound to be rather trying, Phil.  Besides, you are not sure that Turk can deliver the note.”

“I’d like to have Ravorelli hear everything I have to say to her, and if he’s there he’ll hear a few things he will not relish.”

“And he’ll laugh at you, too.”

An hour later Turk returned.  He was grinning broadly as he entered the room.

“Did you succeed?” demanded Quentin, leaping to his feet.  For answer the little man daintily, gingerly dropped a small envelope into his hand.

“She says to give th’ note to you an’ to nobody else,” he said, triumphantly.  Quentin hesitated an instant before tearing open the envelope, the contents of which meant so much to him.  As he read, the gloom lifted from his face and his figure straightened to its full height.  The old light came back to his eyes.

“She says I may come, Dickey.  I knew she would,” he exclaimed, joyously.

“When?”

“At nine to-night.”

“Is that all she says?”

“Well—­er—­no.  She says she will see me for the last time.”

“Not very comforting, I should say.”

“I’ll risk it’s being the last time.  I tell you, Savage, I’m desperate.  This damnable game has gone far enough.  She’ll know the truth about the man she’s going to marry.  If she wants to marry him after what I tell her, I’ll—­I’ll—­well, I’ll give it up, that’s all.”

“If she believes what you tell her, she won’t care to marry him.”

“She knows I’m not a liar, Dickey, confound you.”

“Possibly; but she is hardly fool enough to break with the prince unless you produce something more substantial than your own accusation.  Where is your proof?”

This led to an argument that lasted until the time came for him to go to her home When he left the hotel in a cab he was thoroughly unstrung, but more determined than ever.  As if by magic, there came to life the forces of the prince.  While Ugo sat calmly in his apartment, his patient agents were dogging the man he feared, dogging him with the persistence and glee of blood-hounds.  Courant and his hirelings, two of them, garbed as city watchmen, were on the Avenue Louise almost as soon as the man they were watching.