"Please don't think that I want to
cross-examine you. I only asked these questions because I have a sincere
regard for Fitzgerald. I know how fond he was of you, and I cannot see
what there is to be gained, from his point of view, by reopening old
wounds."

"I suppose, then," she remarked, looking at him in such a manner
that Miss Brown had to cover her mouth with her hands to prevent her
screaming out--"I suppose you are one of those who think it a crime for
a woman who is married even to want to see, for a few moments, an old
sweetheart?"

"On the contrary," Peter Ruff answered, "as a bachelor, I have no
convictions of any sort upon the subject."

She sighed.

"I am glad of that," she said.

"I am to understand, then," Peter Ruff remarked, "that your reason for
wishing to meet Mr. Fitzgerald again is purely a sentimental one?"

"I am afraid it is," she murmured; "I have thought of him so often
lately. He was such a dear!" she declared, with enthusiasm.

"I have never been sufficiently thankful," she continued, "that he got
away that night. At the time, I was very angry, but often since then I
have wished that I could have passed out with him into the fog and been
lost--but I mustn't talk like this! Please don't misunderstand me, Mr.
Ruff. I am happily married--quite happily married!"

Peter Ruff sighed.

"My friend Fitzgerald," he remarked, "will be glad to hear that."

Maud fidgeted. It was not quite the effect she had intended to produce!

"Of course," she remarked, looking away with a pensive air, "one has
regrets."

"Regrets!" Peter Ruff murmured.

"Mr. Dory is not well off," she continued, "and I am afraid that I
am very fond of life and going about, and everything is so expensive
nowadays. Then I don't like his profession. I think it is hateful to
be always trying to catch people and put them in prison--don't you, Mr.
Ruff?"

Peter Ruff smiled.

"Naturally," he answered. "Your husband and I work from the opposite
poles of life. He is always seeking to make criminals of the people whom
I am always trying to prove worthy members of society."

"How noble!" Maud exclaimed, clasping her hands and looking up at him.
"So much more remunerative, too, I should think," she added, after a
moment's pause.

"Naturally," Peter Ruff admitted. "A private individual will pay more
to escape from the clutches of the law than the law will to secure
its victims. Scotland Yard expects them to come into its arms