tives which led me to
do so."

"My dear man, what explanation could I have?" Philippa protested, "it is
an absolute and undeniable fact that Mr. Lessingham was at Magdalen
with my brother, and also that he visited us at Wood Norton. I know
both these things of my own knowledge. The only possible explanation,
therefore, is that you have been misinformed."

"Or," Captain Griffiths ventured, "that Mr. Hamar Lessingham in those
days passed under another name."

"Another name?" Philippa faltered.

"Some such name, perhaps," he continued, "as Bertram Maderstrom."

There was a short silence. Captain Griffiths had leaned back in his
chair and was caressing his upper lip. His eyes were fixed upon Philippa
and Philippa saw nothing. Her little heel dug hard into the carpet. In a
few seconds the room ceased to spin. Nevertheless, her voice sounded to
her pitifully inadequate.

"What an absurdity all this is!" she exclaimed.

"Maderstrom," Captain Griffiths said thoughtfully, "was, curiously
enough, an intimate college friend of your brother's. He was also a
visitor at Wood Norton Hall. At neither place is there any trace of
Mr. Hamar Lessingham. Perhaps you have made a mistake, Lady Cranston.
Perhaps you have recognised the man and failed to remember his name. If
so, now is the moment to declare it."

"I am very much obliged to you," Philippa retorted, "but I have never
met or heard of this Mr. Maderstrom--"

"Baron Maderstrom," he interrupted.

"Baron Maderstrom, then, in my life; whereas Mr. Lessingham I remember
perfectly."

"I am sorry," Captain Griffiths said, setting down his empty teacup and
rising slowly to his feet. "We cannot help one another, then."

"If you want me to transfer Mr. Lessingham, whom I remember perfectly,
into a German baron whom I never heard of," Philippa declared boldly, "I
am afraid that we can't."

"Baron Maderstrom was a Swedish nobleman," Captain Griffiths observed.

"Swedish or German, I know nothing of him," Philippa persisted.

"There remains, then, nothing more to be said."

"I am afraid not," Philippa agreed sweetly.

"Under the circumstances," Captain Griffiths asked, "you will not, I am
sure, expect me to dine to-night."

"Not if you object to meeting Mr. Hamar Lessingham," Philippa replied.

Her visitor's face suddenly darkened, and Philippa wondered vaguely
whether anything more than professional suspicion was responsible
for that little storm of passion which for a