the confessional.

"She certainly did seem," he admitted, "to enjoy her champagne a great
deal, and she talked about her dull life at home a little more, perhaps,
than was discreet to one who was presumably a stranger. She was curious,
too, about dining out. Poor little girl, though. Just fancy, John Dory
has never taken her anywhere but to Lyons' or an A B C, and the pit of a
theatre!"

"Which evening is it to be?" Miss Brown asked.

"Something was said about Thursday," Peter Ruff admitted.

"And her husband?" Miss Brown enquired.

"He happens to be in Glasgow for a few days," Peter Ruff answered.

Miss Brown looked at her employer steadily. She addressed him by his
Christian name, which was a thing she very seldom did in office hours.

"Peter," she said, "are you going to let that woman make a fool of you?"

He raised his eyebrows.

"Go on," he said; "say anything you want to--only, if you please, don't
speak disrespectfully of Maud."

"Hasn't it ever occurred to you at all," Miss Brown continued, rising
to her feet, "that this Maud, or whatever you want to call her, may be
playing a low-down game of her husband's? He hates you, and he has
vague suspicions. Can't you see that he is probably making use of your
infatuation for his common, middle-class little wife, to try and get
you to give yourself away? Can't you see it, Peter? You are not going to
tell me that you are so blind as all that!"

"I must admit," he answered with a sigh, "that, although I think you go
altogether too far, some suspicion of the sort has interfered with my
perfect enjoyment of the morning."

Miss Brown drew a little breath of relief. After all, then, his folly
was not so consummate as it had seemed!

"What are you going to do about it, then?" she asked.

Peter Ruff coughed--he seemed in an unusually amenable frame of mind,
and submitted to cross-examination without murmur.

"The subject of Mr. Spencer Fitzgerald," he remarked, "seemed, somehow
or other, to drop into the background during our luncheon. I propose,
therefore, to continue to offer to Mrs. John Dory my most respectful
admiration. If she accepts my friendship, and is satisfied with it,
so much the better. I must admit that it would give me a great deal of
pleasure to be her occasional companion--at such times when her husband
happens to be in Glasgow!"

"And supposing," Miss Brown asked, "that this is not all she
wants--supposing, for instance, that she persists