I meant to
ask whether you have ever been to his flat in Harrington Gardens?"

"Ah! I see," she cried instantly. "That woman Petre has endeavoured to
set you against me, Teddy, because I love you. She has invented some
cruel lie or other, just as she did in another case within my knowledge.
Come," she added, "tell me out plainly what she has alleged against me?"

She was very firm and resolute now, and I saw in her face a hard, defiant
expression--an expression of bitter hatred against the woman who had
betrayed her.

"Well," I said; "loving you as intensely as I do, I can hardly bring
myself to repeat her insinuations."

"But I demand to know them," she protested, standing erect and facing me.
"I am attacked; therefore, I am within my right to know what charges the
woman has brought against me."

"She has brought no direct charges," was my slow reply. "But she has
suggested certain things--certain scandalous things."

"What are they?" she gasped, suddenly pale as death.

"First tell me the truth, Phrida," I cried, holding her in my arms and
looking straight into those splendid eyes I admired so much. "Admit
it--you knew Digby. He--he was a friend of yours?"

"A--a friend--" she gasped, half choking with emotion. "A--friend--yes."

"You knew him intimately. You visited him at his rooms unknown to me!" I
went on fiercely.

"Ah!" she shrieked. "Don't torture me like this, Teddy, when I love you
so deeply. You don't know--you can never know all I have suffered--and
now this woman has sought to ruin and crush me!"

"Has she spoken the truth when she says that you visited Digby--at
night--in secret!" I demanded, bitterly, between my teeth, still holding
her, her white, hard-set face but a few inches from my own.

She drew a long, deep breath, and in her eyes was a strange
half-fascinated look--a look that I had never seen in them before.

"Ah! Teddy," she gasped. "This--this is the death of all our love. I
foresee only darkness and ruin before me. But I will not lie to you. No!
I--I----"

Then she paused, and a shudder ran through her slim frame which I held
within my grasp. "I'll tell you the truth. Yes. I--I--went to see your
friend unknown to you."

"You did!" I cried hoarsely, with fierce anger possessing my soul.

"Yes, dear," she faltered in a voice so low that I could scarce catch her
reply. "Yes--I--I went there," she faltered, "because--because he--he
compelled me."

"Compelled you!" I echoed in