d when she came in--but I wasn't startled,' his sitter
continued.

'You concealed it very well, if you were.'

'Ah, when one has been through what I have! To-day however I confess I
was half prepared. I have seen her hanging about--she knows my
movements. She was near my house this morning--she must have followed
me.'

'But who is she then--with such a _toupet_?'

'Yes, she has that,' said the Colonel; 'but as you observe she was
primed. Still, there was a cheek, as they say, in her coming in. Oh,
she's a bad one! She isn't a model and she never was; no doubt she has
known some of those women and picked up their form. She had hold of a
friend of mine ten years ago--a stupid young gander who might have been
left to be plucked but whom I was obliged to take an interest in for
family reasons. It's a long story--I had really forgotten all about it.
She's thirty-seven if she's a day. I cut in and made him get rid of
her--I sent her about her business. She knew it was me she had to thank.
She has never forgiven me--I think she's off her head. Her name isn't
Geraldine at all and I doubt very much if that's her address.'

'Ah, what is her name?' Lyon asked, most attentive. The details always
began to multiply, to abound, when once his companion was well
launched--they flowed forth in battalions.

'It's Pearson--Harriet Pearson; but she used to call herself
Grenadine--wasn't that a rum appellation? Grenadine--Geraldine--the jump
was easy.' Lyon was charmed with the promptitude of this response, and
his interlocutor went on: 'I hadn't thought of her for years--I had
quite lost sight of her. I don't know what her idea is, but practically
she's harmless. As I came in I thought I saw her a little way up the
road. She must have found out I come here and have arrived before me. I
daresay--or rather I'm sure--she is waiting for me there now.'

'Hadn't you better have protection?' Lyon asked, laughing.

'The best protection is five shillings--I'm willing to go that length.
Unless indeed she has a bottle of vitriol. But they only throw vitriol
on the men who have deceived them, and I never deceived her--I told her
the first time I saw her that it wouldn't do. Oh, if she's there we'll
walk a little way together and talk it over and, as I say, I'll go as
far as five shillings.'

'Well,' said Lyon, 'I'll contribute another five.' He felt that this was
little to pay for his entertainment.

That entertainment was interrupted howev