this subject their tongues had to be silent as long as he remained.

Suddenly the door opened, and a portly man with a sallow, greasy face came quickly in. He stood still, with his hand on the panel of the door, and gave a short, quick gasp which caused the captain to look at him sharply.

And schooled as he was against the betrayal of[Pg 45] any feeling, Westerham himself nearly uttered an exclamation, for the man who had entered the room so suddenly was the fat man out of whom he had knocked the sense the night before.

[Pg 45]

The fat man closed the door behind him gently, and came into the centre of the room.

“Sir Paul,” said Captain Melun, “allow me to present Mr. Bagley. Mr. Bagley is the manager of a branch of a great bank, and acts as our financier.”

Mr. Bagley's sallow and greasy countenance broke into a hideously affable smile. Westerham found himself shaking hands with the man who held Lady Kathleen's secret.

The pause which followed this introduction became so embarrassing that Mrs. Bagley suggested that they should go in to tea; and in a cheerful dining-room Westerham found himself looking curiously at the collection of tea and coffee pots, whisky decanters, bacon and eggs, and muffins and cakes, which were spread promiscuously on the clean white tablecloth.

The conversation turned on many things, but for the most part upon the weather. When the little party had eaten and drunk their fill the captain rapped sharply on the table.

There was complete silence, in which Melun rose, and having first closed the window he afterwards opened the door to satisfy himself that no one listened without.

He then returned to his seat at the table and spoke quickly and in a low voice.

“I have told you,” he said rapidly,[Pg 46] “how I met Sir Paul.”

[Pg 46]

The baronet could not resist the luxury of a sardonic little smile.

Melun saw it and winced, but went boldly on with his subject.

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