sharply to Melun, “I shall expect you to-morrow at noon.”

For quite a while they drove north in silence. It was not, indeed, until they were passing through Regent Street that Mme. Estelle turned to Westerham and spoke the first word.

“Forgive my being so blunt,” she said, “but I think you are playing an exceedingly dangerous game.”

“What it is possible for a woman to do is possible for me to do,” said Westerham.

The woman sighed. “Ah, yes, possible,” she said,[Pg 48] “and yet with you and with me things are quite different. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose—I have nothing to lose at all.”

[Pg 48]

They drove on again in silence—a long silence, during which Westerham turned many things over in his mind, and the conclusion he came to was that it would be well to have this woman for his friend.

They were driving past the graveyard of the St. John's Wood Chapel when he turned to her almost sharply and said, “Are you sure that I have nothing to gain?”

Mme. Estelle turned and looked at him quickly, and her eyes were startled; the brilliant colour had left her face.

“What do you mean?” she cried. “You are Sir Paul, aren't you?”

“Madam,” said Westerham, almost gently, “I'm sorry if I startled you. Those who run great risks always imagine that the greatest object of every other person is to accomplish their downfall. I assure you that no such motive prompted me in making the bargain I have made with Melun.”

“Then,” said the woman, “you can have no aim unless it be mere idle curiosity?”

Westerham said nothing for the moment, but five minutes later, as though he were resuming a conversation which had been abruptly broken off, he said, “I am not so sure.”

The carriage had now passed out of the Finchley Road into a quiet cul-de-sac, and had drawn up before a high wooden door let into a garden wall.

Westerham assisted Mme. Estelle to alight. She asked him to ring the bell, which he did, and a second later the garden door opened by some unseen agency.

When she had stepped into the garden, Mme.[Pg 49] Estelle beckoned to Westerham to 

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