nd away from under my feet, I was coming to tell you
that Lord Dredlinton had drawn money from the company to which he was not
entitled, besides having overdrawn his salary to a considerable extent.
The cashier has pointed out to me serious irregularities. I came to you
to know what I was to do."

"I cannot conceive a person less able to advise you," she answered. "I
have said before that my husband's connection with your company is one
which I dislike extremely, and I should be delighted to hear that it
was ended."

"If it were ended at the present moment," Phipps said slowly, "it would,
I fear, be under somewhat painful circumstances."

"What do you mean?" Josephine demanded.

"What I very much hate to put into plain words. Your husband has used
money of the company's to which he has no right. I have been paying him
four thousand a year, hoping that indirectly I was benefiting you. He has
deceived me. I see no reason why I should spare him. The last money he
drew from the company--his action in drawing it amounts to a criminal
misdemeanour."

"Do you mean that you will prosecute him?"

"Why not?"

Josephine for the first time showed signs of disturbance.

"Is this what you came to tell me?" she asked.

"In a sense, yes!"

"What is the amount?"

"The specific amount in question is a thousand pounds."

"And do you want me to find it to save my husband from prison?"

Mr. Phipps was shocked.

"My dear lady," he protested, "you have utterly and entirely
misunderstood me."

"I am not so sure about that," she answered.

"You have misunderstood me if you imagine for a moment that I came here
to ask you to make up the amount of your husband's defalcations."

"What did you come for, then?"

"I came," Peter Phipps declared, "entirely out of consideration for you.
I came to ask what you wished done, and to do it. I came to assure you
of my sympathy; if you will accept it, my friendship; and if you will
further honour me by accepting it, my help."

"Just how do you propose to help me?" Josephine enquired.

"Just in the way," he answered, "that a man to whom money is of no
account may sometimes help a woman for whom he has a most profound, a
most sincere, a most respectful admiration".

"You came, in fact," Josephine said, "to place your bank account at my
disposal?"

"I would never have ventured," he protested, "to have put the matter
so crudely. I came to express my admiration for you and my desire to