ct? All through
the stress of the struggle with him, she had been conscious of something
faintly maternal in her efforts to guide and uplift him. But for the
present, if he clung to her, it was not in order to be dragged up, but to
feel some one floundering in the depths with him: he wanted her to suffer
with him, not to help him to suffer less.

Happily for both, there was little physical strength to sustain his
frenzy. It left him, collapsed and breathing heavily, to an apathy so
deep and prolonged that Lily almost feared the passers-by would think it
the result of a seizure, and stop to offer their aid. But Monte Carlo is,
of all places, the one where the human bond is least close, and odd
sights are the least arresting. If a glance or two lingered on the
couple, no intrusive sympathy disturbed them; and it was Lily herself who
broke the silence by rising from her seat. With the clearing of her
vision the sweep of peril had extended, and she saw that the post of
danger was no longer at Dorset's side.

"If you won't go back, I must--don't make me leave you!" she urged.

But he remained mutely resistant, and she added: "What are you going to
do? You really can't sit here all night."

"I can go to an hotel. I can telegraph my lawyers." He sat up, roused by
a new thought. "By Jove, Selden's at Nice--I'll send for Selden!"

Lily, at this, reseated herself with a cry of alarm. "No, no, NO!" she
protested.

He swung round on her distrustfully. "Why not Selden? He's a lawyer isn't
he? One will do as well as another in a case like this."

"As badly as another, you mean. I thought you relied on ME to help you."

"You do--by being so sweet and patient with me. If it hadn't been for you
I'd have ended the thing long ago. But now it's got to end." He rose
suddenly, straightening himself with an effort. "You can't want to see
me ridiculous."

She looked at him kindly. "That's just it." Then, after a moment's
pondering, almost to her own surprise she broke out with a flash of
inspiration: "Well, go over and see Mr. Selden. You'll have time to do it
before dinner."

"Oh, DINNER----" he mocked her; but she left him with the smiling
rejoinder: "Dinner on board, remember; we'll put it off till nine if you
like."

It was past four already; and when a cab had dropped her at the quay, and
she stood waiting for the gig to put off for her, she began to wonder
what had been happening on the yacht. Of Silverton's whereabouts the