CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
INTERVENTION.
"Madame," announced the major-domo of the Hôtel Magnifique with a superb gesture, "the post from England!"
"Thank you, Thémistocle," said Mrs Carfrae. "But you are over-generous: one of these letters is not for me."
She handed back an envelope.
Thémistocle, needless to remark, was desolated at his own carelessness, and said so. But the old lady cut him short.
"Don't distress yourself unduly, Thémistocle. It is a mistake even an English body might have made. There is not much difference between Carfrae and Carthew."
The punctilious Thémistocle refused to be comforted.
"But no, madame," he persisted; "I should have observed that the letter addressed itself to a monsieur, and not a madame. Doubtless it is intended for one of the English party who arrive this afternoon."
"An English party? Is my seclusion to be disturbed by the disciples of the good Monsieur Cook?"