she feared I would speak to her husband. On
pretence of seeking my advice, she inveigled me at night into a
deserted corner of the Club grounds at Hong Kong. Lord Ventnor
appeared, and as the upshot of their vile statements, which created an
immediate uproar, I--well, Miss Deane, I nearly killed him."

Iris vividly recalled the anguish he betrayed when this topic was
inadvertently broached one day early in their acquaintance. Now he was
reciting his painful history with the air of a man far more concerned
to be scrupulously accurate than aroused in his deepest passions by the
memory of past wrongs. What had happened in the interim to blunt these
bygone sufferings? Iris clasped her locket. She thought she knew.

"The remainder may be told in a sentence," he said. "Of what avail were
my frenzied statements against the definite proofs adduced by Lord
Ventnor and his unfortunate ally? Even her husband believed her and
became my bitter foe. Poor woman! I have it in my heart to pity her.
Well, that is all. I am here!"

"Can a man be ruined so easily?" murmured the girl, her exquisite tact
leading her to avoid any direct expression of sympathy.

"It seems so. But I have had my reward. If ever I meet Mrs. Costobell
again I will thank her for a great service."

Iris suddenly became confused. Her brow and neck tingled with a quick
access of color.

"Why do you say that?" she asked; and Jenks, who was rising, either did
not hear, or pretended not to hear, the tremor in her tone.

"Because you once told me you would never marry Lord Ventnor, and after
what I have told you now I am quite sure you will not."

"Ah, then you _do_ trust me?" she almost whispered.

He forced back the words trembling for utterance. He even strove weakly
to assume an air of good-humored badinage.

"See how you have tempted me from work, Miss Deane," he cried. "We have
gossiped here until the fire grew tired of our company. To bed, please,
at once."

Iris caught him by the arm.

"I will pray tonight, and every night," she said solemnly, "that your
good name may be cleared in the eyes of all men as it is in mine. And I
am sure my prayer will be answered."

She passed into her chamber, but her angelic influence remained. In his
very soul the man thanked God for the tribulation which brought this
woman into his life. He had traversed the wilderness to find an oasis
of rare beauty. What might lie beyond he neither knew nor cared.
Through the re