a piece of buttered toast in one hand and a cup of tea in the
other. His head was very neatly bound up, and he seemed quite at his
ease.

"You know," he began, as he wheeled a chair up to the fire for her,
"that man Griffiths doesn't like me. He never took to me from the first,
I could see that. If it comes to that, I don't like Griffiths. He is
one of those mean, suspicious sort of characters we could very well do
without."

Philippa, who had rehearsed a little speech several times in her
bedroom, tried to be firm.

"Mr. Lessingham," she said, "you know that we are both your friends. Do
listen, please. Captain Griffiths is Commandant here and in a position
of authority. He has a very large power. I honestly believe that it is
his intention to have you arrested--if not to-night, within a very few
days."

"I do not see how he can," Lessingham objected, helping himself to
another piece of toast. "I have committed no crime here. I have played
golf with all the respectable old gentlemen in the place, and I have
given the committee some excellent advice as to the two new holes. I
have played bridge down at the club--we will call it bridge!--and I
have kept my temper like an angel. I have dined at Mess and told them at
least a dozen new stories. I have kept my blinds drawn at night, and I
have not a wireless secreted up the chimney. I really cannot see what
they could do to me."

Philippa tried bluntness.

"You have served in the German army, and you are living in a protected
area under a false name," she declared.

"Well, of course, there is some truth in what you say," he admitted,
"but even if they have tumbled to that and can prove it, I should do no
good by running away. To be perfectly serious," he added, setting his
cup down, "there is only one thing at the present moment which would
take me out of Dreymarsh, and that is if you believe that my presence
here would further compromise you and Miss Fairclough."

Philippa was beginning to find her courage. "We're in it already, up to
the neck," she observed. "I really don't see that anything matters so
far as we are concerned."

"In that case," he decided, "I shall have the honour of presenting
myself at the usual time."

CHAPTER XXIII

Philippa and Helen met in the drawing-room, a few minutes before
eight that evening. Philippa was wearing a new black dress, a model of
simplicity to the untutored eye, but full of that undefinable appeal to
the mysteri