By a mighty effort she fought back the faintness and regained a little of her self-control.

“At this hotel,” she explained, in a hoarse voice, “I was to have met a man who was to accompany me across the frontier. He had a passport for both of us—for himself and for his wife.”

“You were to pass as his wife?”

“Yes.”

“But you did not know the man?”

“Evidently—or I should not have——”

She stopped, her face crimson with embarrassment.

“H-m!” said Stewart, reflecting that he, at least, had no reason to regret the mistake. “Perhaps this unknown is in some other room.”

“No; you are the only person in the hotel.”

“Evidently, then, he has not arrived.”