"This way, sir," said the attendant at the Hotel Gigantique.
Lucas followed him, still racking his brains for some explanation not too disastrous to his hopes. The man opened the door of a sitting-room and closed it quietly behind him. In the room there was only one person, a girl with the sunniest hair and the straightest little nose and the most delightfully astonished face imaginable.
"Jean!" he cried.
He took a quick step towards her and then remembered the gravity of the summons.
"What's the matter?" he demanded.
"Then it was you!" she exclaimed.
"Me?"
"Father only told me that some one—a man—"
He held out the telegram abruptly.
"What do you make of that?"