itation gold purse which she was carrying.

"I am sure, Mr. Ruff," she said, looking demurely into her lap, "I
ought not to have come here. I feel terribly guilty. It's such an
uncomfortable sort of position, too, isn't it?"

"I am sorry that you find it so," Peter Ruff said. "If there is anything
I can do--"

"You are very kind," she murmured, half raising her eyes to his and
dropping them again, "but, you see, we are perfect strangers to one
another. You don't know me at all, do you? And I have only heard of you
through the newspapers. You might think all sorts of things about my
coming here to make enquiries about a gentleman."

"I can assure you," Peter Ruff said, sincerely, "that you need have no
fears--no fears at all. Just speak to me quite frankly. Mr. Fitzgerald
was a friend of yours, was he not?"

Maud simpered.

"He was more than that," she answered, looking down. "We were engaged to
be married."

Peter Ruff sighed.

"I knew all about it," he declared. "Fitzgerald used to tell me
everything."

"You were his friend?" she asked, looking him in the face.

"I was," Peter Ruff answered fervently, "his best friend! No one was
more grieved than I about that--little mistake."

She sighed.

"In some ways," she remarked softly, "you remind me of him."

"You could scarcely say anything," Peter Ruff murmured "which would give
me more pleasure. I am flattered."

She shook her head.

"It isn't flattery," she said, "it's the truth. You may be a few years
older, and Spencer had a very nice moustache, which you haven't, but you
are really not unlike. Mr. Ruff, do tell me where he is!"

Peter Ruff coughed.

"You must remember," he said, "that Mr. Fitzgerald's absence was caused
by events of a somewhat unfortunate character."

"I know all about it," she answered, with a little sigh.

"You can appreciate the fact, therefore," Peter Ruff continued, "that
as his friend and well-wisher I can scarcely disclose his whereabouts
without his permission. Will you tell me exactly why you want to meet
him again?"

She blushed--looked down and up again--betrayed, in fact, all the signs
of confusion which might have been expected from her.

"Must I tell you that?" she asked.

"You are married, are you not?" Peter Ruff asked, looking down at her
wedding ring.

She bit her lip with vexation. What a fool she had been not to take it
off!

"Yes! Well, no--that is to say--"

"Never mind," Peter Ruff interrupted.