stood in front of him. "Young man, you're not to ask curious questions.
This is a very private matter; there's a lot about it which I don't
wish to explain, and which I don't think you're quite in a state to
understand if I did. I'll tell you exactly what it is I want you to do.
I want you to drive with me in, say, half an hour to the banker's.
There I shall take you into a private room, and I shall tell them that
you are my husband, Sir Jocelyn Kingstone; that you have not been very
well, and cannot stand much worry, so that they're to get matters
through as quickly as they can. If you like, you need not speak at all;
you can leave all the talking to me, and, I may add, all the
responsibility, too. Then, I imagine, they may ask you to sign a paper
of some sort--I don't quite know what, but it won't be very much--then
they'll hand you the money, and you'll sign for it, and then we'll come
away. You see that the whole thing won't last more than five or, at the
outside, ten minutes. We'll drive back here together, and in return for
the service you've done me I'll do anything you like--mind, anything
you like--for you. You'll find in me the best friend you ever had."
She knelt beside him on the floor, cajoling him, whispering things
which he barely understood, but which were pleasant to hear. Somehow
the feeling of physical well-being seemed to dull his senses still
more. The dream became more dream-like; the woman's hands softly
smoothed his hair; her lips were close to his; her eyes bewitched him;
her words charmed his ears. She refilled the big sherry glass, and,
even unwittingly, he sipped the insidious liqueur. In short, she played
the fool with him, which, after all, was easy. At the best, after what
he had lately gone through, he was little more than the husk of a man;
but they had taken care that he should not be at his best. Her male
accomplice had, as they put it, "readied" him. It was true that they
had fed and washed and clothed him, but it was also true that they had
dosed and drugged him. Being helpless in their hands, they had played
tricks with him of which he had no notion and against which he had no
defence.
After awhile the woman went out of the room. Without, suspiciously
close to the door, was the man. They exchanged a few hurried sentences.
She asked: "Is the brougham outside?"
"It's been there ever since I brought him down."
"I'm going to put on my hat. Give me his; I'll put it on for him. He's
in a state in which he's more in my line than in yours."
The man grinned. He rubbed his chin as if considering.
"How long shall you be?"

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