I hoped, that it would
have a salutary effect upon him and induce him to turn back from a
course of conduct that I foresaw would be disastrous."

He straightened up and his dark eyes, that would have been somber but
for their keenness, ran quickly down over her face and figure and then
rested again with a softened expression upon hers.

"I would like you to believe that, whatever was the result of what I
did, I had no evil or selfish motive in doing it. Can you feel that
much confidence in me, Miss Marne?"

She bent her eyes upon the desk for the moment of silence that
followed his question and made effort to voice her reply in a cool,
disinterested tone.

"I can understand that you might have been moved by a sense of duty
toward the public welfare--if you believed in your own assertions. I
gather from what you said just now that you wish to be considered Mr.
Brand's friend; but that sort of thing does not agree with my idea of
the loyalty there should be between friends."

His black brows drew together in a slight frown as he looked intently
at her averted face. "Well," he said, more slowly than he had
previously spoken, "I shall not try to justify myself. I shall only
repeat that my motive was neither selfish nor malicious. I had not
thought particularly, in fact, I had not thought at all then, about
the public side of it. I did it solely in the hope that it would have
a good effect upon Felix." He paused again for a moment and as she
noted his familiar use of her employer's name she thought that, after
all, the relations between them must be intimate.

"But I hope," he went on, his manner again brusque, "that you will
free your mind from all suspicion as to my reasons for coming here
today."

She flushed and turned a little more away, and he smiled behind his
hand as he stroked his short, thick, black mustache.

"I know already more about Felix Brand and his affairs than pleases me
and I am just now much more interested in my own."

She faced him with a sudden movement and asked sharply: "Do you know
where he is?"

Her eyes caught an inscrutable change in his. Something almost like
awe came into them and into his countenance as his gaze turned to the
window and sought the blue and distant sky.

"No," he said, his voice sounding a solemn note, and repeated: "No, I
do not. I do not know where he is now."

His eyes returned to her face and as he met her startled expression he
exclaimed in a kindly way, l