started the car,
and with a smile to Vermont he took his departure.

Vermont stood looking after him, his gaze almost still in its fixity;
then he turned and passed up the stairs. In the dining-room he found
Norgate, clearing away the cards and glasses, in no very amiable humour.

"Has there been a luncheon party?" queried Mr. Vermont.

"Yes, sir," answered Norgate aggrievedly; "Mr. Shelton, Lord Standon and
Mr. Paxhorn."

"And bridge?" murmured Mr. Vermont inquiringly.

"Yes, sir; and from what I heard, I believe Mr. Leroy lost."

"Ah," commented the other softly, "I fear Mr. Leroy always does lose,
doesn't he?"

"He's made me lose my time to-day with his fads and fancies," grumbled
Norgate, removing the folding card-table; "what with bringing in street
wenches at one o'clock in the morning; and they mustn't be disturbed, if
you please."

Jasper Vermont was instantly on the alert. He was not above encouraging
a servant to gossip, and, although Norgate was not given to err in this
direction as a rule, upon the present occasion his grievance got the
better of him, and Vermont was soon in possession of such slight facts
as could be gleaned.

CHAPTER V

Johann Wilfer, Jessica's adopted father, was German by birth, and the
son of an innkeeper in one of the tiny villages on the banks of the
Rhine. In his youth he had studied as an art-student at Munich; but,
finally, by his idle and dissolute behaviour, so angered the authorities
that he had been compelled to return home. Tiring of the rural life
there, he finally obtained from his parents sufficient money to come to
London to try his fortune.

Here he soon obtained some work from the smaller art dealers, which
enabled him to live in comparative comfort, and had it not been for his
unreliability and his love of drink he might have seen to be a good
artist.

Wilfer was a handsome young fellow in those days, and while on one of
his wandering tours in Kent he met and won the heart of a simple little
country girl, named Lucy Goodwin. Lucy believed her lover to be
everything that was good, and, trusted him even to the extent of her
betrayal; so that, under some pretence, young Wilfer was able to entice
the girl to Canterbury, where, a few weeks later, he deserted her.

She was the only daughter of a widower, a clerk in the employ of a
country bank, who, broken-hearted at his daughter's ruin, threw up his
situation, changed hi