defiant, but all was useless. He only laughed
triumphantly at her as they walked along the deserted promenade in the
direction of the hotel.

Suddenly they halted. I held back at once. They conversed in lower
tones--intense words that I could not catch. But it seemed to me that
the frail little woman who was so often my companion was cowed and
terrified. Why? What did she fear?

She left him, while he drew back into the shadow. I waited also in the
shadow for nearly ten minutes, then I passed on, ascended some steps
and reentered the hotel. In the lounge I sank into a seat in a hidden
corner and lit a cigarette. Presently I heard the swish of a woman's
skirt behind me, and rising, peered out. It was Lady Lydbrook on her
way out. She was carrying the cheque to the mysterious stranger!

Alone in my room that night I threw myself into a chair and pondered
deeply. I had learned that Lady Lydbrook was under the influence of
that ill-dressed man who spoke so well, and whom I at first took to be
an undergraduate or perhaps a hospital student.

It was a point to report to Rayne. Somehow I felt a rising antagonism
towards the young man who had successfully extracted fifty pounds from
my dainty little companion who was so passionately fond of jewels and
who frequently wore some exquisite rings and pendants. What hold could
the fellow have upon her?

Next morning she appeared bright and radiant at breakfast--which, of
course, she took with her rather retiring friend Elsie Wallis--and I
smiled across at her. She was, after all, a bright up-to-date little
married woman possessed of great wealth and influence, her whole life
being devoted to self-enjoyment at the expense of her elderly and
despised husband. She was a typical girl of society who had married an
old man for his money and afterwards sought younger male society. We
have them to-day in hundreds on every side.

After breakfast we went together along the sea-front where the band
was playing. The weather was glorious and Eastbourne looked at its
best.

I now regarded her as a mystery after what I had witnessed on the
previous night.

"I'm horribly bored here!" she declared to me, as in her white summer
gown she strolled by my side towards the town. "Owen is not coming, so
I think I shall soon get away somewhere."

"What about your friend Elsie?" I asked, wondering whether her
decision had any connection with the unwelcome arrival of that
mysterious young man in tw