fact we must not forget."

"Then she must be a hitherto unsuspected factor in the case."

"Possibly, and yet---"

"Yet what?"

"I confess I have no other solution to offer. Oh, by the way, what is the number of her room?"

Guy stiffened perceptibly.

"I don't think I remember it."

"How annoying! I particularly asked you to make a note of it!"

"Oh, did you?" Guy's face was averted and he toyed nervously with his eye-glass.

"Of course I did. You must realise--in fact we discussed it together--that I must be able to see her."

"As there is nothing that you can do for her, why should you compromise her still further?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you ought not to take further advantage of her peculiar affliction so as to play the part of a devoted husband."

"This is outrageous--" began Cyril, but Campbell cut him short.

"While you fancied that she was in need of your assistance, I grant that there was some excuse for your conduct, but to continue the farce any longer would be positively dishonourable."

Cyril was so surprised at Campbell's belligerent tone that for a moment it rendered him speechless. From a boy Guy had always been his humble admirer. What could have wrought this sudden change in him? wondered Cyril. Again his eyes lingered on the violets. It was not possible! And yet Cyril had often suspected that under Guy's obvious shrewdness there lurked a vein of romanticism. And as Cyril surveyed his friend, his wrath slowly cooled. For the first time it occurred to him that Campbell's almost comic exterior must be a real grief to a man of his temperament. His own appearance had always seemed to Cyril such a negligible quantity that he shrank from formulating even in his mind the 

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