Then she turned to the young American.
“I wonder if you would be so good as to telephone my friends and tell them I am all right. I know they have been dreadfully worried about me and, although my story does sound rather improbable, I am sure I shall have no difficulty in proving it. If you will please call up Mrs. Richard Burton, 27 Rue de Varennes, I shall be deeply grateful. My name is Bettina Graham; my father is Senator Graham of Washington and I have been in France for some time helping with the reclamation work.”
“I say, Miss Graham, then I know your father slightly!” the young man exclaimed. “I have been living in Washington for several years, only for the past few weeks I have been in France as one of the unimportant members of the United States Peace Commission.
“My name is David Hale. Of course I will telephone your friends with pleasure, but I think you had best allow me to go along with you afterwards as perhaps I may be useful. I am boarding in Versailles at present because the hotels in Paris are so crowded and by a lucky chance I was allowed to pay a visit to the Queen’s secret garden this morning. I don’t have to go into Paris for several hours, not until the afternoon session of the Peace Commission.”
At this the old gardener, evidently relieved by the turn events had taken, started off, Bettina and her new acquaintance following.
A few feet further along, David Hale, added unexpectedly:
“See here, Miss Graham, you probably may not appreciate the fact, but I have seen you before. I was in Paris the day the armistice was signed, having been sent over to France on a special mission a little time before. On the morning of the great day an American woman, a friend of mine whose son had been killed fighting in France, asked me to place a bouquet on the statue of Alsace Lorraine in the Place de la Concorde. It is queer I should remember perhaps, but you were standing close beside the monument. I call this a piece of good luck.”
Bettina smiled, although not feeling in a particularly cheerful mood.
“I am sure the good luck is mine.”