d the right weapons. Mr. Aynesworth is not a woman's man, but I
fancy that he is ambitious. I thought that you might go and see him. He
has rooms somewhere in Dorset Street."

He rose to his feet. A glance at the clock reminded him of the hour.

"I will go," he said. "I will do what I can. I think, dear," he added,
bending over her to say farewell, "that you should have been the man!"

She laughed softly.

"Am I such a failure as a woman, then?" she asked with a swift upward
glance. "Don't be foolish, Lumley. My woman will be here to dress me
directly. You must really go away."

He strode down the stairs with tingling pulses, and drove to the House,
where his speech, a little florid in its rhetoric, and verbose as became
the man, was nevertheless a great success.

"Quite a clever fellow, Barrington," one of his acquaintances remarked,
"when you get him away from his wife."

A FORLORN HOPE

Aynesworth ceased tugging at the strap of his portmanteau, and rose
slowly to his feet. A visitor had entered his rooms--apparently
unannounced.

"I must apologize," the newcomer said, "for my intrusion. Your
housekeeper, I presume it was, whom I saw below, told me to come up."

Aynesworth pushed forward a chair.

"Won't you sit down?" he said. "I believe that I am addressing Mr.
Lumley Barrington."

Not altogether without embarrassment, Barrington seated himself.
Something of his ordinary confidence of bearing and demeanor had
certainly deserted him. His manner, too, was nervous. He had the air of
being altogether ill at ease.

"I must apologize further, Mr. Aynesworth," he continued, "for an
apparently ill-timed visit. You are, I see, on the eve of a journey."

"I am leaving for America tomorrow," Aynesworth answered.

"With Sir Wingrave Seton, I presume?" Barrington remarked.

"Precisely," Aynesworth answered.

Barrington hesitated for a moment. Aynesworth was civil, but inquiring.
He felt himself very awkwardly placed.

"Mr. Aynesworth," he said, "I must throw myself upon your consideration.
You can possibly surmise the reason of my visit."

Aynesworth shook his head.

"I am afraid," he said, "that I must plead guilty to denseness--in this
particular instance, at any rate. I am altogether at a loss to account
for it."

"You have had some conversation with my wife, I believe?"

"Yes. But--"

"Before you proceed, Mr. Aynesworth," Barrington interrupted, "one
word. You are aware that Sir Wingrave S