We shall
be--rather notorious, in a very few days."

Leslie said, after a moment, "I've hired you to buy my things for me. Are
you going to chuck me?"

And Peter, leaning his forehead on his hand as if tired, returned
beneath his breath, "Don't be good to me, please, just now. And you
must see I've got to chuck it all--all that side of things. We must do
something quite new, Hilary and I. We--we've spoiled this."

After a pause, Leslie said gently, afraid of blundering, "You stick
together, you and your brother? You go through it together--all the way?"

Peter answered hopelessly, "All the way. We're in it together, and we
must get out together, as best we can," and Leslie accepted that, and
asked no further question.

CHAPTER X

THE LOSS OF A PROFESSION

Peter went back to the Palazzo Amadeo and said to Hilary, who was writing
an article for "The Gem" in the saloon, "I wouldn't go on with that,
Hilary. It's no use."

The flatness of his voice, the pallor of his face, startled Hilary and
Peggy.

Peggy said, "You're tired to death, child. Take the big chair."

Hilary said, "How do you mean, no use?"

And Peter told him. While he did so, he stood at the window, looking down
at the canal between the green shutters that swung ajar, and did not look
at Hilary's face.

It was an impossible position for Hilary, so utterly impossible that it
was no use trying to make the best of it; one could only look away, and
get through it quickly.

Peter didn't say much. He only said, "We've been found out. That man who
came to you this afternoon was a spy sent by Cheriton. He reported the
result of his interview with you, and Lord Evelyn knows all about
everything. Cheriton suspected from the first, you see.... From what Lord
Evelyn said, I gather he means to prosecute.... He is ... very angry
indeed.... They all are...."

On the last statement Peter's voice sank a little in pitch, so that they
hardly heard it. But the last statement mattered to no one but Peter.

Hilary had got up sharply at the first words, and stood very still to
listen, letting out one long breath of weary despair. Peggy came and
stood close to him, and took one slim white hand in her large kind ones,
and gently held it. The fat was indeed in the fire. Poor old Hilary! How
he would feel it! Peggy divined that what stung Hilary most deeply at the
moment was Peter's discovery of his faithlessness.

It was of that that his first shamed, incoh