uite clear," said I.

"I've told William all about you," said she. "We have no secrets. I
am so sorry about it. But it couldn't have been so very deep, could
it, if you could go off to the other end of the world and leave me here
alone. You're not crabby, are you?"

"No, no, not at all. I think I'll go."

"Have some refreshment," said the little man, and he added, in a
confidential way, "It's always like this, ain't it? And must be unless
you had polygamy, only the other way round; you understand." He laughed
like an idiot, while I made for the door.

I was through it, when a sudden fantastic impulse came upon me, and I
went back to my successful rival, who looked nervously at the electric
push.

"Will you answer a question?" I asked.

"Well, within reason," said he.

"How did you do it? Have you searched for hidden treasure, or
discovered a pole, or done time on a pirate, or flown the Channel, or
what? Where is the glamour of romance? How did you get it?"

He stared at me with a hopeless expression upon his vacuous,
good-natured, scrubby little face.

"Don't you think all this is a little too personal?" he said.

"Well, just one question," I cried. "What are you? What is your
profession?"

"I am a solicitor's clerk," said he. "Second man at Johnson and
Merivale's, 41 Chancery Lane."

"Good-night!" said I, and vanished, like all disconsolate and
broken-hearted heroes, into the darkness, with grief and rage and
laughter all simmering within me like a boiling pot.

One more little scene, and I have done. Last night we all supped at
Lord John Roxton's rooms, and sitting together afterwards we smoked in
good comradeship and talked our adventures over. It was strange under
these altered surroundings to see the old, well-known faces and
figures. There was Challenger, with his smile of condescension, his
drooping eyelids, his intolerant eyes, his aggressive beard, his huge
chest, swelling and puffing as he laid down the law to Summerlee. And
Summerlee, too, there he was with his short briar between his thin
moustache and his gray goat's-beard, his worn face protruded in eager
debate as he queried all Challenger's propositions. Finally, there was
our host, with his rugged, eagle face, and his cold, blue, glacier eyes
with always a shimmer of devilment and of humor down in the depths of
them. Such is the last picture of them that I have carried away.

It was after supper, in his own sanctum--t