ered Mr. Hughes.

"Thank you," he said. "I fully appreciate the position. The scoundrel
has learnt how to give an English sound to his name. Probably my
daughter taught him. Hard though it is for a father to say such a
thing, she is the real brain behind this sordid story of intrigue and
wrong-doing."

"Dear me!" gasped Mr. Hughes again. He felt that he must, indeed, be
growing old. He had married many hundreds of couples during his
ministerial career, and had, in many instances, compared the subsequent
lives of his matrimonial clients with the impressions formed during the
ceremony, yet never had he been so gravely at fault as in his
summing-up of the characteristics of John D. Curtis and Hermione
Beauregard Grandison.

Vassilan emerged from the kitchen, dripping but less gory, and the two
visitors disappeared, whereupon Mr. Hughes confided his mystification
to Jenkins.

But Wil-li-am shook his cadaverous head.

"Mebbe the Earl was right, an' mebbe he was wrong," he said decisively.
"I didn't size up the Earl, so I let it go at that, but I did see the
other guy--beg pardon, sir, I mean the other gentleman--an' he'll be
lucky if he gets to bed to-night without being clubbed by a policeman.
Someone has been at him already--hard at him--an' I'm not surprised,
for his langwidge reminded me of my best days at sea."

"William!"

"What, sir? Oh, I meant my young days, of course. Now, I wonder----"

It had just occurred to Jenkins that Mr. Curtis and his bride could
hardly have got clear away from 56th Street before the Earl and his
companion turned up.

"Gee!" he cackled. "I wish I hadn't closed the door so damn quick!"

Mr. Hughes raised hands of horrified protest, and Jenkins wilted.

"Sorry, sir," he stammered. "I must have got a bit wound up when I saw
the foreign gentleman's nose. When I went a-whalin' on the _Star of
the Sea_ we had a first mate who could man-handle anybody, but even he
would have had to use a belayin' pin to stamp his trade-mark in _that_
shape. Now, the question is--_could_ it have been this here Mr.
Curtis? It reely is a pity I was so--so spry on the door."

Outside, the chauffeur had announced that he had straightened the
levers sufficiently to render them serviceable, and he was directed to
make for the Central Hotel, 27th Street, but he had not reached
Broadway before the Earl bade him return to Mr. Hughes's residence.
What had happened was this--Lord Valletort's recoll