"Again—that is quick work."
The Count looked up, still smiling.
"I told you that we should have no difficulties," he exclaimed.
Alban helped himself to some superb bisque soup and permitted the waiter to fill his glass from a flask of Chablis.
"It was quite an accident upon my part. I went up to the Castle as you advised me and then down into the old town. Lois is with her friends there. I have had a long talk to her and now I understand everything."
The Count nodded his head and sipped his wine. The frankness of all this deceived him but not wholly. The boy had discovered something—it remained to be seen how much.
"You are successful beyond hope," he exclaimed presently, "this will be great news for Mr. Gessner. Of course, you asked her plainly what had happened?"
"She told me without my asking, Count. Now I understand everything—for the first time."
The tone of the reply arrested Sergius' attention and brought a frown to his face. He kept his eyes upon Alban when next he spoke.