The next day they all spent in resting, for they had arranged to leave Mentone the following morning.
Lady Cameron and Mrs. Mencke remained in their rooms until evening, only coming down to join the gentlemen after tea for a little while.
They were gathered in a small private parlor, where each seemed to strive to assume a cheerfulness which no one felt.
Suddenly there came a sharp, imperative knock upon the door.
Lord Cameron arose to open it, and found himself face to face with a young man several years his junior, and who would have been regarded as strikingly handsome but for the worn and haggard look upon his face, and the wild, almost insane expression in his restless eyes.
Vane bowed to him courteously, then inquired:
"Can I do anything for you, sir? Whom do you wish to see?"
"Lord Cameron, Earl of Sutherland," was the brief but stern reply.
"I am he," the young man began, when his visitor unceremoniously pushed his way into the room, closing the door behind him.
At this act Wilhelm Mencke and his wife started to their feet, one with a cry of surprise and dismay, the other with an oath of anger, while both had grown deathly pale.