ables were occupied, but
he had evidently reserved one, for immediately on his appearance the
waiter with a smirk led him to one of the alcoves and pulled back a
chair for the girl. She looked round as she stripped her gloves. The
place was not unfamiliar to her. It was here she came at rare intervals,
when her finances admitted of such an hilarious recreation, to find
comfort for jangled nerves, to sit and sip her tea to the sound of
violins and watch the happy crowd at her leisure, absorbing something of
the happiness they diffused.

The palm-court was a spacious marble hall, a big circle of polished
pillars supporting the dome, through the tinted glass of which the light
was filtered in soft hues upon the marble floor below.

"Doctor," she said, suddenly remembering, "I have been reading quite a
lot about you to-day."

He raised his eyebrows.

"About me?"

She nodded, smiling mischievously.

"I didn't know that you were such a famous person--I have been reading
about the Millinborn murder."

"You have been reading about the Millinborn murder?" he said steadily,
looking into her eyes. "An unpleasant case and one I should like to
forget."

"I thought it was awfully thrilling," she said. "It read like a
detective story without a satisfactory end."

He laughed.

"What a perfectly gruesome subject for tea-table talk," he said lightly,
and beckoned the head-waiter. "You are keeping us waiting, Jaques."

"Doctor, it will be but a few minutes," pleaded the waiter, and then in
a low voice, which was not so low that it did not reach the girl. "We
have had some trouble this afternoon, doctor, with your friend."

"My friend?"

The doctor looked up sharply.

"Whom do you mean?"

"With Mr. Jackson."

"Jackson," said the doctor, startled. "I thought he had left."

"He was to leave this morning by the ten o'clock train, but he had a
fainting-fit. We recovered him with brandy and he was too well, for this
afternoon he faint again."

"Where is he now?" asked van Heerden, after a pause.

"In his room, monsieur. To-night he leave for Ireland--this he tell
me--to catch the mail steamer at Queenstown."

"Don't let him know I am here," said the doctor.

He turned to the girl with a shrug.

"A dissolute friend of mine whom I am sending out to the colonies," he
said.

"Won't you go and see him?" she asked. "He must be very ill if he
faints."

"I think not," said Dr. van Heerden quietly, "these little attacks