f you take
my advice you'll get out while the getting's good. And I can tell you
this before you go any further, she's had all the money she's going to
get from me.'

"'Well,' I said, 'you needn't get excited about it. I haven't come to
ask you for money.'

"'Oh, I'm not excited,' he responded, grimly. 'I'm in full possession of
all my faculties. One needs them when she's round. Where is she now? In
the cab waiting to hear the result of the interview?'

"'No,' I said; 'she's residing in Saloniki now.'

"'Saloniki! Snakes! She's a wonder! Why, I understood the money she had
from me and some others was to start her father in an oil business in
Egypt. Are _you_ in the oil business? Or are you her father?'

"'No, only a friend,' I said.

"'Oh, only a friend. Poor chap! Well, that's all I was when she--wait a
bit, will you? Have a peg?' And he brought out a bottle and some
glasses. While we were drinking, Miss Bailey came out in her walking
costume, and looking pleasantly at each of us in turn, went out to get
her tea. When the door closed, Mr. Kelly flung back the curtain and sat
down on the bed, indicating an easy chair.

"'Look here,' said he, lighting a cigarette and throwing the package
toward me. 'I'm not grousing you know. I tell you frankly, I was
infatuated with her. I neglected my work. I spent my money. I wanted to
marry her. She's that sort. Drives you mad. But she wouldn't. Nothing
doing. She's like that. She makes you feel like one of these old
knights. You want to protect her from the cruel world. You want to fling
everything you've got at her feet, lie down and let her walk over you.
Well, take my advice and don't do it!'

"I thought it as well to interrupt him here and give him a more correct
estimate of my part in the affair. He smoked his cigarette out and flung
it in the fireplace.

"'Oh,' he said. 'I see. Well, all I can say is you are very lucky. But
you're mistaken about me, my friend. I'm not to be bled. I'm not
grousing. I don't even regret the money she cost me, though it would be
very useful to me now, when I'm driven to do posters instead of my real
work. I believe it does a man good to go off his head sometimes about a
woman. What I feel so disgusted about is the lies she told me. That's
one of her characteristics, you know. She really believes them herself
at the time. She's imaginative, if you like. Spins the most
circumstantial terradiddles. For instance, how do you know her story i