the little red book
with a snap and replaced it in his desk.

"I wonder where on earth people dig up names like Belinda Mary?" he
mused. "Belinda Mary must be rather a weird little animal--the Lord
forgive me for speaking so about my betters! If heredity counts for
anything she ought to be something between a head waiter and a pack of
cards. Have you lost anything'?"

Mansus was searching his pockets.

"I made a few notes, some questions I wanted to ask you about and
Lady Bartholomew was the subject of one of them. I have had her under
observation for six months; do you want it kept up?"

T. X. thought awhile, then shook his head.

"I am only interested in Lady Bartholomew in so far as Kara is
interested in her. There is a criminal for you, my friend!" he added,
admiringly.

Mansus busily engaged in going through the bundles of letters, slips
of paper and little notebooks he had taken from his pocket, sniffed
audibly.

"Have you a cold?" asked T. X. politely.

"No, sir," was the reply, "only I haven't much opinion of Kara as a
criminal. Besides, what has he got to be a criminal about? He has all
that he requires in the money department, he's one of the most popular
people in London, and certainly one of the best-looking men I've ever
seen in my life. He needs nothing."

T. X. regarded him scornfully.

"You're a poor blind brute," he said, shaking his head; don't you know
that great criminals are never influenced by material desires, or by
the prospect of concrete gains? The man, who robs his employer's till
in order to give the girl of his heart the 25-pearl and ruby brooch her
soul desires, gains nothing but the glow of satisfaction which comes to
the man who is thought well of. The majority of crimes in the world are
committed by people for the same reason--they want to be thought well
of. Here is Doctor X. who murdered his wife because she was a drunkard
and a slut, and he dared not leave her for fear the neighbours would
have doubts as to his respectability. Here is another gentleman who
murders his wives in their baths in order that he should keep up some
sort of position and earn the respect of his friends and his associates.
Nothing roused him more quickly to a frenzy of passion than the
suggestion that he was not respectable. Here is the great financier, who
has embezzled a million and a quarter, not because he needed money,
but because people looked up to him. Therefore, he must build
great mansi