en shortly darkness. Night deepened, and the stars came out.
From the window I watched the moon rise till it flooded the room with its
pale light, my mind at last fallen into the sombre quiet of deep
abstraction.

A mocking voice brought me to earth with a start.

"Romantic spectacle! A world bathed in moonlight. Do you compose verses to
your love's bright eyes, Mr. Montagu? Or perhaps an epitaph for some close
friend?"

An elegant figure in dark cloak, riding boots, and three-cornered hat
confronted me, when I slowly turned.

"Hope I don't intrude," he said jauntily.

I gave him a plain hint. "Sir Robert, like Lord Chesterfield, when he was
so ill last year, if I do not press you to remain it is because I must
rehearse my funeral obsequies."

His laugh rang merrily. Coming forward a step or two, he flung a leg
across the back of a chair.

"Egad, you're not very hospitable, my friend. Or isn't this your evening
at home?" he fleered.

I watched him narrowly, answering nothing.

"Cozy quarters," he said, looking round with polite interest. "May I ask
whether you have taken them for long?"

"The object of your visit, sir," I demanded coldly.

"There you gravel me," he laughed. "I wish I knew the motives for my
visit. They are perhaps a blend--some pique, some spite, some curiosity,
and faith! a little admiration, Mr. Montagu."

"All of which being presumably now satisfied----"

"But they're not, man! Far from it. And so I accept the courteous
invitation you were about to extend me to prolong my call and join you in
a glass of wine."

Seeing that he was determined to remain willy-nilly, I made the best of
it.

"You have interpreted my sentiments exactly, Sir Robert," I told him. "But
I fear the wine will have to be postponed till another meeting. My cellar
is not well stocked."

He drew a flask from his pocket, found glasses on the table, and filled
them.

"Then let me thus far play host, Mr. Montagu. Come, I give you a toast!"
He held the glass to the light and viewed the wine critically. "'T is a
devilish good vintage, though I say it myself. Montagu, may you always
find a safe port in time of storm!" he said with jesting face, but with a
certain undercurrent of meaning that began to set my blood pounding.

But though I took a glimmer of the man's purpose I would not meet him
half-way. If he had any proposal to make the advances must come from him.
Nor would I allow myself to hope too much.

"I'