"Ask him anything you've a mind to!" Harleston laughed. "You've a very winning pair of black eyes et cetera, my lady."

"I've never seen the Secretary!" she smiled.

"Small matter. He'll see you, all right."

"I'll make an impression, you think?"

"If you don't, it will be the first failure of the sort you've ever registered."

"Except with you," she murmured.

"Good Lord!" he exclaimed. "You've had me going many times."

"Yes, Guy--but not now," she whispered.

"Now, I'm strong!" he laughed, bluntly declining the overture.

"Hence you are willing that I try my smiles on the Secretary," she retorted.

"We are fellow diplomats," he countered. "You did me a good turn in the Du Plesis affair; I'm trying now to show my appreciation. Moreover, it will give Snodgra.s.s an opportunity to reflect on your beauty and fascinating ways--and to look forward to eight o'clock."

"It is pleasant to have something agreeable to look forward to," she replied, ironically suggestive.

"Isn't it?" he approved. "I don't know anything more pleasant--unless it is the finishing stroke of an _affaire Diplomatique_."

"Do you antic.i.p.ate the finishing stroke to the present affair?"

"In due time."

"Due time?" she inflected.

"Whatever is necessary in the premises," he explained.

"It hasn't then gotten beyond the premises?"

"No, it hasn't gotten beyond the premises," he replied--with an inward chuckle.

There was no occasion to explain that, by the latter premises, he meant herself. His whole scheme was dependent on her having the traitorous letter in her possession. He was quite sure Snodgra.s.s had received it by mail at the Rataplan; and why had he put the unopened envelope in his pocket unless to give it to her on their way to the Chateau. And as he (Harleston) had caught her as she alighted from the taxi, and had hurried her off to the State Department, she must still have it. Of course, there was the possibility that Snodgra.s.s had not yet delivered it; so Snodgra.s.s was being looked after by others.

"Won't you give me a line on his Excellency, Guy?" she asked. "Is he easy, or difficult, or neither?"

"I may not betray the weak points of my chief!" Harleston smiled.

"Moreover, here we are," as the taxi came to a stop on the Seventeenth Street side of an atrociously ugly, and miserably inadequate building that partially houses three Departments of the great American Government.

"Am I to be left alone with the great one?" she asked, as they went up the steps from the sidewalk.

"What do you wish me to do?" he inquired.

"Wait until I signal!"

"And if his Excellency signals first?"

"It will be for me to influence that signal," she replied.

They took the private elevator to the next floor. The old negro messenger was waiting at the door of the reception room and he bowed to the floor--a portion of the bow was for Harleston, but by far the larger portion was for Madeline Spencer.

"De Sec'eta'y, seh, am waiting for you all at onct, Mars Ha'lison," he said; and ushering them across the big room to the Secretary's private office he swung back the heavy door and bowed them into the Presence.

As she pa.s.sed the threshold, Mrs. Spencer caught her breath sharply, and straightened her shoulders just a trifle. She saw where she stood, and what was coming. Very well--she would defeat them yet.

XXIV

THE CANDLE FLAME

The Secretary was standing by the window; with him were Mrs. Clephane and Carpenter.

"How do you do, Mrs. Spencer!" he said, without waiting for the formal presentation.

She dropped him--Continental fashion--a bit of curtsy and offered him her slender fingers; which, as well as the rest of her hand, he took and held. Its shapeliness together with her beauty of face and figure were instantly swept up by his appraising glance.

"Your Excellency is very gracious!" she murmured bestowing on him a look that fairly dizzied him.

Small wonder, he thought, that she was reputed the most fascinating and loveliest secret agent in Europe--and the most dangerous to the other party involved; it would be a rare man, indeed, who could withstand such charms, to say nothing of the alluring and appealing ways that must go with them. If he only might try them--just to test his own fine power of resistance and adamantine will! He shot a quick glance of suppressed irritation at Harleston--and Madeline Spencer saw it and smiled, turning the smile toward Harleston.

"I know what you are about to do," the smile said. "Now do it if you can. You were afraid to trust me alone with this man; you knew how easy he would be for me. Proceed with your game, Mr. Harleston--and play it out."

Meanwhile the Secretary, still holding her hand, was saying:

"Let me present the Fifth a.s.sistant Secretary of State, Mr.

Carpenter;--" and Carpenter received a smile only a little less dazzling than that bestowed on his chief--"I believe you have met Mrs. Clephane,"

he ended, and only then did he release her hand.

"Yes, I have met Mrs. Clephane," she replied indifferently, and without so much as a glance her way.

It was to be a battle, so why delay it?

"Your Excellency," said she, "when this appointment was made, some days ago, I thought that it was merely to enable an insignificant woman to say that she had met a great dignitary and famous man. I think so no longer. It has a.s.sumed an international significance. I am here not as plain Madeline Spencer but as Madeline Spencer of the German Secret Service. It seems that a certain letter intended for the French Amba.s.sador has gone astray, and has come into your possession; therefore I am to be asked to explain the matter, though I've never seen the letter nor know the cipher in which, I am told by Mr. Harleston, it is written. So what is it you would of me, your Excellency?"

"My dear Madame Spencer," said the Secretary, "what you say as to the original reason for this little meeting, arranged by our mutual friend, Mr. Harleston, is absolutely correct--except that it was a mere man who was desirous of being presented to a beautiful and a famous woman. It seems, however, that certain circ.u.mstances have suddenly arisen that made it imperative for the meeting to be advanced half an hour--"

"What are those circ.u.mstances, may I ask?" she cut in.

"I shall have to request Mr. Harleston to answer. To be quite candid, Madame Spencer, I can only infer them; Mr. Harleston arranged them."