, adored. I am sorry for her
in my soul. It would wring my heart to let her go. And notice, Captain
Fyffe, I am not trying to thrust her on the world, I am not trying
to introduce her to any friend of mine. When you saw us in the street
yesterday she drove out for the first time in my company in London. Ah,
Captain Fyffe, we cannot do much good in this miserable world if we try
ever so hard. I have never tried very hard. I have been a frivolous,
butterfly, useless creature; but at my time of life, you see, one begins
to have serious fancies. And it was mine to find this poor creature an
asylum, where she might hide her head from shame, and be free of all
temptation. You are a stern man, Captain Fyffe, you have shown me that,
but do not be all justice and no mercy." She actually cried and clung to
me as she spoke, and even now it seems difficult to believe that there
was no genuine feeling at the bottom of it all, though I know perfectly
well that there was no ground for the merest scrap of it.

The situation was horribly embarrassing, and yet if I had been the most
yielding fool alive there was no escape. It was simply impossible that
I, with my eyes open, should permit any woman who openly associated with
Constance Pleyel to associate with Violet.

"I have no wish," I answered, "to speak one word to Miss Pleyel's
disadvantage, and I have no right, to dictate terms to you; but if you
should insist on continuing your acquaintance with Miss Pleyel and with
Lady Rollinson, it will be my bounden duty to tell her ladyship what I
know, and leave her to act for herself."

"Ah, well," she cried, in a voice of despair, "I do not even know that I
can blame you; but am I to be sure that I can buy your silence?"

"That you can buy my silence?" I repeated.

"Yes," she answered, despondently, looking up at me with tear-stained
eyes. "I mean--will you say nothing if I promise to visit Lady Rollinson
no more and to meet Miss Rossano no more? I am asking nothing for
myself, Captain Fyffe, remember, and I would not stoop to make terms at
all if it were not for this unhappy woman's sake. Will you promise me
this?"

I thought the matter over for a minute, and I promised. As it turned
out, I never did an unwiser thing; but I had no means of knowing how
unwise it was, and I was affected by her tears and protestations. If
Baroness Bonnar had not had the skill to bedevil cleverer men than
myself, and men twenty times as experienced, she