ened him.

"To whom shall I send my cheque, Leicester?" went on Sprague. "Purvis
also wants to know. Having fulfilled our part of the business, you will,
of course, also finish yours. It reflects no credit upon any of us."

"No," said Leicester, speaking very quietly. "If any cheque is sent, I
will send it myself."

"You mean then that all we have heard is false, and that the young lady
has refused you."

"What I mean does not affect you, providing I send the cheque," replied
Leicester, still speaking quietly.

"Leicester has been converted at a drawing-room meeting, after all,"
said Sprague, with a sneer. "I hear he has adopted quite a different
tone in his speeches. We shall see him addressing mothers' meetings
yet."

Still Leicester kept himself under control, although Sprague tried him
sorely.

"Come, Leicester," want on Sprague, "if you are converted, you ought to
give up this unworthy business; if you are not, then you have no right
to ruin a woman's life."

"I think I can mind my own business," said Leicester.

"But the question is, are you converted from the error of your ways?
Have you turned moral reformer, temperance lecturer, and the rest of
it?"

"And if I have?"

"Oh, nothing--only I think it ought to be duly reported in the religious
papers."

Leicester still kept himself under control, nevertheless Sprague's
sneers were telling on him.

"Besides," went on his tormentor, "you've hardly played the game,
Leicester. The understanding was that you were to win her as an atheist,
hard drinker, and a cynic, whereas you've turned moral reformer. You've
been wearing a mask."

"Well, that's not your business."

"I think it is. Anyhow, you admit that this engagement is a grim joke."

"I repeat that that is not your business," said Leicester; "if I send
the cheque to the hospital, the matter is done with, as far as you are
concerned."

"And you really mean to say that you are a reformed character? I
sincerely congratulate you."

"If you mean by that that I believe in your profession or your
drawing-room meetings, no. I regard them as I always did."

"Then you have been simply playing a part with Miss Castlemaine?"

"And if I have, what is that to you?"

He was scarcely master of himself now, or he would not have allowed the
conversation to drift into such a channel. But the man angered him
almost beyond words, all the more so because he was mixed up in the
affair, of which he felt ashame