r hair, a long
moustache, and shifty blue eyes, rushed into the room and did not stop
till there was only the small table between him and the lady.

'I've caught you! What have you to say?' he asked.

'To you? Nothing!'

She deliberately turned her back on her husband, rested one elbow on
the mantelpiece and set one foot upon the low fender, drawing up
her velvet gown over her instep. But a moment later she heard other
footsteps in the room, and turned her head to see Mr. Van Torp enter
the room between two big men who were evidently ex-policemen. The
millionaire, having failed to shut the door in the face of the three
men, had been too wise to attempt any further resistance.

The fair man glanced down at the table and saw the envelope with his
wife's initials lying beside the tea things. She had dropped it there
when she had risen to her feet at the sound of his voice. He snatched
it away as soon as he saw the pencilled letters on it, and in a moment
he had taken out the notes and was looking over them.

'I should like you to remember this, please,' he said, addressing the
two men who had accompanied him. 'This envelope is addressed to my
wife, under her initials, in the handwriting of Mr. Van Torp. Am
I right in taking it for your handwriting?' he inquired, in a
disagreeably polite tone, and turning towards the millionaire.

'You are,' answered the American, in a perfectly colourless voice and
without moving a muscle. 'That's my writing.'

'And this envelope,' continued the husband, holding up the notes
before the men, 'contains notes to the amount of four thousand one
hundred pounds.'

'Five hundred pounds, you mean,' said the lady coldly.

'See for yourself!' retorted the fair man, raising his eyebrows and
holding out the notes.

'That's correct,' said Mr. Van Torp, smiling and looking at the lady.
'Four thousand one hundred. Only the first one was for a hundred, and
the rest were thousands. I meant it for a little surprise, you see.'

'Oh, how kind! How dear and kind!' cried the lady gratefully, and with
amazing disregard of her husband's presence.

The two ex-policemen had not expected anything so interesting as this,
and their expressions were worthy of study. They had been engaged,
through a private agency, to assist and support an injured husband,
and afterwards to appear as witnesses of a vulgar clandestine meeting,
as they supposed. It was not the first time they had been employed on
such busin