“I can trust them implicitly to you, I am sure, Mr. Fairfax,” she replied.  “And now here we are at the church.  If you walk quickly you will be just in time to catch your train.  Let me thank you again for coming down to-day.”

“It has been a great pleasure to me,” I replied.  “Perhaps when I return from Paris you will permit me to come down again to report progress?”

“We shall be very pleased to see you,” she answered.  “Now, good-bye, and a pleasant journey to you!”

We shook hands and parted.  As I passed along the road I watched her making her way along the avenue towards the church.  There was need for me to shake my head.

“George Fairfax,” said I, “it would require very little of that young lady’s society to enable you to make a fool of yourself.”

CHAPTER VIII

Unlike so many of my countrymen I am prepared to state that I detest the French capital.  I always make my visits to it as brief as possible, then, my business completed, off I fly again, seeming to breathe more freely when I am outside its boundaries.  I don’t know why this should be so, for I have always been treated with the utmost courtesy and consideration by its inhabitants, particularly by those members of the French Detective Force with whom I have been brought in contact.

On this visit I crossed with one of the cleverest Parisian detectives, a man with whom I have had many dealings.  He was most anxious to ascertain the reason of my visit to his country.  My assurance that I was not in search of any one of his own criminals seemed to afford him no sort of satisfaction.  He probably regarded it as an attempt to put him off the scent, and I fancy he resented it.  We reached Paris at seven o’clock, whereupon I invited him to dine with me at eight o’clock, at a restaurant we had both patronized on many previous occasions.  He accepted my invitation, and promised to meet me at the time and place I named.  On the platform awaiting our arrival was my man Dickson, to whom I had telegraphed, ordering him to meet me.

“Well, Dickson,” I said, when I had bade the detective an revoir, “what about our man?”

“I’ve had him under my eye, sir,” he answered.  “I know exactly what he’s been doing, and where he’s staying.”

“That’s good news indeed,” I replied.  “Have you discovered anything else about him?”

“Yes, sir,” he returned.  “I find that he’s struck up a sudden acquaintance with a lady named Mademoiselle Beaumarais, and that they are to dine together at the Cafe des Ambassadeurs to-night.  They have been in and out of half the jewellers’ shops in the Rue de la Paix to-day, and he’s spending a mint of money on her.”

“They are dining at the Cafe des Ambassadeurs to-night, did you say?  At what time?”

“I cannot tell you that, sir,” Dickson replied.  “I only know that they are to dine there together to-night.”