"Well," said Hugh, a few moments later, "all this is most amazing. I feel certain that he is either the mysterious Sparrow himself, or one of his chief accomplices."
"The Sparrow? Who is he--dear?" asked Dorise, her hand upon her lover's shoulder.
"Let's sit down somewhere, and I will tell you," he said. Then, re-entering the park by the small iron gate, Dorise led him to a fallen tree where, as they sat together, he related all he had been told concerning the notorious head of a criminal gang known to his confederates, and the underworld of Europe generally, as Il Passero, or The Sparrow.
"How very remarkable!" exclaimed Dorise, when he had finished, and she, in turn, had told him of the encounter at the White Ball at Nice, and the coming and going of the messenger from Malines. "I wonder if he really is the notorious Sparrow?"
"I feel convinced he is," declared Hugh. "He sent me a message in secret to Malines a fortnight ago forbidding me to attempt to leave Belgium, because he considered the danger too great. He was, no doubt, much surprised to-night when he found me here."
"He certainly was quite as surprised as myself," the girl replied, happy beyond expression that her lover was once again at her side.
In his strong arms he held her in a long, tight embrace, kissing her upon the lips in a frenzy of satisfaction--long, sweet kisses which she reciprocated with a whole-heartedness that told him of her devotion. There, in the shadow, he whispered to her his love, repeating what he had told her in London, and again in Monte Carlo.
Suddenly he put a question to her: "Do you really believe I am innocent of the charge against me, darling?"
"I do, Hugh," she answered frankly.
"Ah! Thank you for those words," he said, in a broken voice. "I feared that you might think because of my flight that I was guilty."
"I know you are not. Mother, of course, says all sorts of nasty things--that you must have done something very wrong--and all that."
"My escape certainly gives colour to the belief that I am in fear of arrest. And so I am. Yet I swear that I never attempted to harm the lady at the Villa Amette."
"But why did you go there at all, dear?" the girl asked. "You surely knew the unenviable reputation borne by that woman!"
"I know it quite well," he said. "I expected to meet an adventuress--but, on the contrary, I met a real good woman!"
"I don't understand you, Hugh," she said.
"No, darling. You, of course, cannot understand!" he exclaimed. "I admit that I followed her home, and I demanded an interview."