a glance that would have crushed him down to beneath that famous chimney-slab, if Cropole had not been nailed to the spot by the question of his own proper interests.

“Do you desire me to go?” said he. “Explain yourself — but quickly.”

“Monsieur, monsieur, you do not understand me. It is very critical — I know — that which I am doing. I express myself badly, or perhaps, as monsieur is a foreigner, which I perceive by his accent — ”

In fact, the unknown spoke with that impetuosity which is the principal character of English accentuation, even among men who speak the French language with the greatest purity.

“As monsieur is a foreigner, I say, it is perhaps