ean--"

"For a little trip to the continent I should imagine; heard of it
because he got some unimportant court matter put over."

"Gone away!" The nobleman, his back to the other, lifted a hand to his
brow. "When?"

"Last night."

"It was only yesterday morning I was riding with him!"

"And he didn't mention the matter?"

The visitor did not answer. "Why should he have gone away?" he murmured,
half aloud. "Was it because--" He walked to the door; at the threshold
stopped and looked back. "You might begin your inquiry by learning all
you can about this little trip," he suggested. "And by the by, whatever
you may find out, if anything, you will regard as belonging to me
exclusively; to be mentioned, under no circumstances, without my
permission, to any one whosoever--"

"Your lordship!" Mr. Gillett's hurt voice implied the little need for
such admonition. "In my profession absolute integrity toward one's
client demands that secrecy should be the first con--"

"It is understood then. Let me hear from you from time to time," and the
nobleman went out.

Mr. Gillett looked after him, then, reflectively, at the closed door.
Outside the sound of shuffling feet alone broke the stillness; before
the book-stand the bibliomaniac buried his face deeper in the musty
pages of an old tragedy.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VII

INCIDENTS

Several months went by and John Steele saw nothing further, although he
heard often, of Miss Jocelyn Wray. His business to the continent,
whatever its nature, had seemed sufficiently important to authorize from
him to her, in due process of time, a short perfunctory message
regretting his inability to present himself at the appointed hour at
Strathorn House. Whether the young girl found in the letter a vagueness
warranting a suspicion that John Steele preferred the heavy duties of
the city to the light frivolities of the country matters not; suffice it
the weeks passed and no further invitations, in the ponderous script of
the wife of Sir Charles, arrived to tempt him from his accustomed ways.
But the days of this long interim had not passed altogether
uneventfully; a few incidents, apart from the routine of his work,
obtruded themselves upon his attention.

A number of supposedly prospective clients had called to ask for him at
his office during his sojourn on the other side of the channel. That was
to have been expected; but one or two of these, by din