. "You're done for if you leave like this. I--I
was a brute to propose such an asinine thing, but having done so I am
bound to see you out of the difficulty. Come into the adjoining
room--there is nobody there at present--and we will empty our pockets
together and find this lost article if we can. I may have pocketed it
myself, in a fit of abstraction."

Did the other hesitate? Some thought so; but, if he did, it was but
momentarily.

"I cannot," he muttered; "think what you will of me, but let me go." And
dashing open the door he disappeared from their sight just as light
steps and the rustle of skirts were heard again in the adjoining room.

"There are the ladies. What shall we say to them?" queried Sedgwick,
stepping slowly towards the intervening curtains.

"Tell them the truth," enjoined Mr. Blake, as he hastily repocketed his
own belongings. "Why should a handsome devil like that be treated with
any more consideration than another? He has a secret if he hasn't a
coin. Let them know this. It may save some one a future heartache."

The last sentence was muttered, but Mr. Sedgwick heard it. Perhaps that
was why his first movement on entering the adjoining room was to cross
over to the cabinet and shut and lock the heavily panelled door which
had been left standing open. At all events, the action drew general
attention and caused an instant silence, broken the next minute by an
ardent cry:

"So your search was futile?"

It came from the lady least known, the interesting young stranger whose
personality had made so vivid an impression upon him.

"Quite so," he answered, hastily facing her with an attempted smile.
"The gentlemen decided not to carry matters to the length first
proposed. The object was not worth it. I approved their decision. This
was meant for a joyous occasion. Why mar it by unnecessary
unpleasantness?"

She had given him her full attention while he was speaking, but her eye
wandered away the moment he had finished and rested searchingly on the
other gentlemen. Evidently she missed a face she had expected to find
there, for her colour changed and she drew back behind the other ladies
with the light, unmusical laugh women sometimes use to hide a secret
emotion.

It brought Mr. Darrow forward.

"Some were not willing to subject themselves to what they considered an
unnecessary humiliation," he curtly remarked. "Mr. Clifford----"

"There! let us drop it," put in his brother-in-law. "I've lo