'In three months, I think?' said Dare, looking to Havill.

Havill assented.

'Five thousand pounds commission,' murmured the creditor. 'Paid down, I
suppose?'

Havill nodded.

'And the works will not linger for lack of money to carry them out, I
imagine,' said Dare. 'Two hundred thousand will probably be spent before
the work is finished.'

'There is not much doubt of it,' said Havill.

'You said nothing to me about this?' whispered the creditor to Havill,
taking him aside, with a look of regret.

'You would not listen!'

'It alters the case greatly.' The creditor retired with Havill to the
door, and after a subdued colloquy in the passage he went away, Havill
returning to the office.

'What the devil do you mean by hoaxing him like this, when the job is no
more mine than Inigo Jones's?'

'Don't be too curious,' said Dare, laughing. 'Rather thank me for
getting rid of him.'

'But it is all a vision!' said Havill, ruefully regarding the pencilled
towers of Stancy Castle. 'If the competition were really the commission
that you have represented it to be there might be something to laugh
at.'

'It must be made a commission, somehow,' returned Dare carelessly. 'I am
come to lend you a little assistance. I must stay in the neighbourhood,
and I have nothing else to do.'

A carriage slowly passed the window, and Havill recognized the Power
liveries. 'Hullo--she's coming here!' he said under his breath, as the
carriage stopped by the kerb. 'What does she want, I wonder? Dare, does
she know you?'

'I would just as soon be out of the way.'

'Then go into the garden.'

Dare went out through the back office as Paula was shown in at the
front. She wore a grey travelling costume, and seemed to be in some
haste.

'I am on my way to the railway-station,' she said to Havill. 'I shall be
absent from home for several weeks, and since you requested it, I have
called to inquire how you are getting on with the design.'

'Please look it over,' said Havill, placing a seat for her.

'No,' said Paula. 'I think it would be unfair. I have not looked at
Mr.--the other architect's plans since he has begun to design seriously,
and I will not look at yours. Are you getting on quite well, and do you
want to know anything more? If so, go to the castle, and get anybody to
assist you. Why would you not make use of the room at your disposal in
the castle, as the other architect has done?'

In asking the question her face was tow