gh
the world after all contained nothing more serious for her than for any
other girl. Duncombe hated to strike another note, yet he knew that
sooner or later it must be done.

"You are quite sure that you will not have anything else?" he asked.

"Absolutely, thanks! I have never enjoyed anything so much in my life."

He glanced at his watch. It was half-past eleven.

"I am afraid," he said, "that I am going to be a nuisance to you, but
one's friends often are that. I want to be your friend. I want to prove
myself such. I am not an inquisitive person, by any means, but fate has
declared that I should be your inquisitor. There are some questions
which I am bound to ask you."

Her face grew suddenly grave.

"There is so little," she murmured, "which I can tell you."

"We shall see," he answered. "In the first place, Lord Runton has been
here. He is one of my oldest friends, and a very good fellow. He came to
tell me that Von Rothe had been robbed in his house of some valuable
papers. He came partly to ask my advice. All the time I was sitting
opposite to him, with those papers in my pocket."

She looked at him strangely.

"Perhaps," she said quietly, "you gave them up to him."

"I did not," he answered. "You know very well that I did not."

"It was your duty," she said in a low tone.

"Perhaps so. On the other hand," he continued, "you trusted me. The
papers are safe."

"Does he know that you have them?" she asked.

"He knows nothing!"

She looked at him steadfastly--not with any appearance of doubting his
word, and yet as though she were revolving something in her mind
concerning him.

"I am thinking," she said, "how much better it would have been for both
of us if we had never met."

"The fates thought otherwise," he answered. "I searched Paris for you,
only to find you at my gates. The fates meant you to be my friend. We
must be careful not to disappoint them."

She shook her head a little wistfully.

"You have been very good to me," she said, "but you don't
understand----"

"Precisely!" he interrupted. "I don't understand. I want to. To begin
with--what in this world induced you to throw in your lot even for an
hour with the man who called himself Fielding?"

"I can answer no questions concerning myself," she said sadly.

He smiled.

"Come," he said, "it isn't so serious as all that, is it? Sooner or
later your friends are sure to find you, and they will not be content
with such a statem