"Why?" asked Hillard.
"I am going to Villefranche."
"You will be wasting time. After what happened last night, I am certain that they will be gone. Let us not change our plans, and let us respect theirs, hard as it may seem to you."
"But you?"
"Oh, don't bother about me. I have relegated my little romance to the garret of no-account things, at least for the present," said Hillard, with an enigmatical smile. He sought his watch. "Make up your mind at once; we have only twenty minutes."
"Oh, divine afflatus! And you lay down the chase so readily as this?" Merrihew was scornfully indignant.
"I would travel the breadth of the continent were I sure of meeting this woman. But she has become a will-o'-the-wisp, and I am too old and like comfort too well to pursue impossibilities."
"But why did she leave you that mask?" demanded Merrihew. "She must have meant something by that."
"True, but for the life of me I can't figure out what, unless she wished to leave with me the last page of the adventure."
"But I don't like the idea of leaving Kitty this way, without a final effort to rescue her from the clutches of this fascinating adventuress. For you must admit that she is naught else."