"What is it?"
"How can I tell? It is not myself who is threatening you. I have only given you warning."
"There is a reason, then, why I should not marry Mr. Keppel?"
"There is even a reason why you should in future refuse to accept his invitations to the Villa Fabron," my strange companion replied. "You have been invited to form one of a party on board the Vispera, but for your personal safety I would presume to advise you not to go."
"I shall certainly please myself," I replied. "These threats will certainly not deter me from acting just as I think proper. If I go upon a cruise with Mr. Keppel and his son, I shall have no fear of my personal safety."
"Reginald Thorne was young and athletic. He had no fear. But he disobeyed a warning. You know the result."
"Then you wish me to decline Mr. Keppel's invitation and remain in Nice?"
"I urge you, for several reasons, to decline his invitation, but I do not suggest that you should remain in Nice. I am the bearer of instructions to you. If you carry them out, they will be distinctly to your benefit."
"What are they?"
"To-day," he said, "is the 18th of February. Those who have your welfare at heart desire that you should, after the Riviera season is over, go to London, arriving there on the 1st of June next."