closer to him.

“Forgive plain speaking on my part,” she said, “but I am perfectly certain that you are being dragged into some horrible disaster. I will be frank and honest with you. I have been given to understand that the cultivation of your acquaintance will free us—I am speaking now for Captain Melun and myself—from those embarrassments which trouble us so much, but I think—I cannot tell why—that it is unfair you should be drawn into this business.

“You don't know, I am afraid, quite what Melun is capable of. I have seen”—here she shuddered a little and broke off.

“Why will you not listen to me,” she continued presently, “and get clear while there is yet time? There is no reason why your good name should be besmirched; there is no reason”—and she faltered[Pg 96] in her speech—“there is no reason why you should lose——”

[Pg 96]

“No reason,” said Westerham, in an even voice, “why I should lose my life?”

Mme. Estelle gave a little gasping sigh and drew away from him.

“Oh!” she cried, turning away her face, “you are pitilessly logical.”

They were standing thus, Westerham looking at Mme. Estelle with his searching gaze while her face was turned towards the window, when the door opened behind them.

The prim voice of the trim maid said, “Captain Melun.”

Westerham gathered himself together with a laugh. It was rather like the star situation of a highly-coloured melodrama.

“If Mme. Estelle will pardon the phrase,” he said. “Speak of the devil——” He stopped short, shrugged his shoulders, and made a little bow towards Melun.

For his part, the captain was entirely without embarrassment, having been warned by the maid that Westerham was with Madame.

“Quite so,” he said. His look, however, was so vicious that Westerham had some inclination to stay and see that Mme. Estelle did not suffer physically as the result of his call. He reflected, however, that Mme. Estelle was evidently a brave woman and Melun a cowardly man.

It was, therefore, with an easy mind on this score that he stepped forward and held out his hand to Madame.

“Thank you very much,” he said,[Pg 97] “for an exceedingly pleasant, 

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