Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/282

 "Ah! You do recollect. That deserves a kiss from me!" he cried, as though she had given the other. Accordingly, he rewarded her as before. "You remember the next time?"

"It was not there," Ruth said vaguely. "It was upon the street."

"Quite so. The Boulevard Madeleine. There was a widow—a refugee—who halted you"

Ruth remembered and took up the account. "She stopped me to try to sell a bracelet, a family treasure"

"Which you admired, I saw, Liebchen."

"It was beautiful, but quite beyond my means to buy—at any fair price for the poor woman," Ruth explained.

"So I purchased it!" He went into a pocket and produced the bracelet. "Put it on, Liebchen!" he bid, himself slipping it over her hand. "Now another kiss for that!"

He took it.

"I did not know you were honoring me with your attentions all that time, Herr Baron."

"Oh, no trouble, Liebchen; a pleasure, I assure you. Besides, with more than your prettiness you piqued curiosity. You see, I received word in Paris when I am there before—a few months ago—that we can confidently employ one who will appear as Cynthia Gail. The word came from Chicago, I may tell you, quite roundabout and with some difficulty. Before we learn more about you—well, Mecklen took it upon himself to do you a little turn, it seems."

Ruth merely nodded, waiting.

"Then a correction arrives from America, laying bare