m he could not free himself.

"I began to tell him that there could be nothing strong enough in
itself to prevent our happiness; but he stopped me in such a way that
I did not feel inclined to continue. In an outburst, filled with
denunciations of his enemy and protestations of devotion to myself, I
caught the name of Hume. He had dropped this inadvertently. I knew it
instantly because of the swift look that he gave me. But I allowed no
hint of what I thought to show in my face. He was more subdued during
the remainder of his stay; the mentioning of the name had startled
him, and he was doubtless afraid that his state of mind would lead him
into further indiscretions.

"As you may suppose, the name--the first tangible thing that I had
learned--was of much interest to me. If I could but find out who this
person was, I could probably get to the bottom of the matter."

At this point Miss Vale paused; and Ashton-Kirk noted her head lift
proudly.

"Perhaps," she continued, "it might be thought that I had no right to
make such an effort in a matter which Mr. Morris saw fit to keep from
me. Were you thinking that? But I am not a silent sufferer. I usually
make an end of annoying things without delay. And I would have done
so in this case long before, but I was in love; and I could not bear
to see Allan suffer by my insistence.

"However, here was an opportunity to perhaps aid him; and I set to
work. In a few hours next day I had located every person of the name
of Hume in the city. Mr. Morris is a consulting engineer. Anyone named
Hume who, from his occupation, would be likely to have dealings with
him especially attracted my attention. There were only a few, and long
before the day was over I had satisfied myself by personal visits at
their places of business that they did not even know him."

Ashton-Kirk smiled. One of his well-kept hands patted applause upon
the arm of his chair.

"You are strong," said he. "I recognized your type when you came
in. It is a pleasure to have one's judgment so thoroughly and
satisfactorily proven."

Miss Vale looked pleased.

"I am glad that you approve of what I did," she said. "I confess I had
some hesitancy, but not enough to prevent my carrying out the design.
But when the first effort proved without result, I set about making a
study of all the Humes in the directory. I had my secretary make me a
typed list of them, with their addresses and occupations, and I pored
over this f