o leave until I come down."

The appointment having been duly made, he ordered his cab and set off
in it for the rendezvous in question. On reaching the club--the same
in which he had seen Jimmy on that eventful night, when he had
discovered that Katherine was in London--Browne found his friend
engaged in the billiard-room, playing a hundred up with a young
gentleman, whose only claim to notoriety existed in the fact, that at
the time he was dissipating his second enormous fortune at the rate of
more than a thousand a week.

"Glad indeed to see you, old man," said Jimmy, as Browne entered the
room. "I thought you were going to remain in Paris for some time
longer. When did you get back?"

"Last night," said Browne. "I came over with Maas."

"With Maas?" cried Jimmy, in surprise. "Somebody said yesterday that
he was not due to return for another month or more. But you telephoned
that you wanted to see me, did you not? If it is anything important, I
am sure Billy here won't mind my throwing up the game. He hasn't a
ghost of a chance of winning, so it will be a new experience for him
not to have to pay up."

Browne, however, protested that he could very well wait until they had
finished their game. In the meantime he would smoke a cigar and watch
them. This he did, and as soon as the competition was at an end and
Jimmy had put on his coat, he drew him from the room.

"If you've nothing you want to do for half an hour or so, I wish you
would walk a little way with me, old chap," he said. "I have got
something to say to you that I must settle at once. This place has as
long ears as the proverbial pitcher."

"All right," said Jimmy. "Come along; I'm your man, whatever you want."

They accordingly left the club together, and made their way down Pall
Mall and across Waterloo Place into the Green Park. It was not until
they had reached the comparative privacy of the latter place that
Browne opened his mind to his friend.

"Look here, Jimmy," he said, "when all is said and done, you and I have
known each other a good many years. Isn't that so?"

"Of course it is," said Jimmy, who noticed his friend's serious
countenance, and was idly wondering what had occasioned it. "What is
it you want to say to me? If I did not know you I should think you
were hard up, and wanted to borrow five pounds. You look as grave as a
judge."

"By Jove! so would you," said Browne, "if you'd got on your mind what I
have on