the Cafe de Berlin. For the indiscretion of behaving like a
bull-headed but courageous young Englishman, he is practically dismissed
from the Service. He comes back smarting with the injustice of it. Chance
brings him in my way. I proceed to do my best to make use of this
opportunity."

"So like you, dear Herr Selingman!" Anna murmured.

Selingman beamed.

"Ever gracious, dear lady. Well, to continue, then. Here I find a young
Englishman of exactly the order and position likely to be useful to us. I
approach him frankly. He has been humiliated by the country he was
willing to serve. I talk to him of that country. 'You are English, of
course,' I remind him, 'but what manner of an England is it to-day which
claims you?' It is a very telling argument, this. Upon the classes of
this country, democracy has laid a throttling hand. There is a spirit of
discontent, they say, among the working-classes, the discontent which
breeds socialism. There is a worse spirit of discontent among the upper
classes here, and it is the discontent which breeds so-called traitors."

"I can imagine all the rest," Anna interposed coolly. "How far have you
succeeded?"

"The young man," Selingman told her, "has accepted my proposals. He has
drawn three months' salary in advance. He furnished me yesterday with
details of a private conversation with a well-known Cabinet Minister."

Anna turned her head. "So soon!" she murmured.

"So soon," Selingman repeated. "And now, gracious lady, here comes my
visit to you. We have a recruit, invaluable if he is indeed a recruit at
heart, dangerous if he has the brains and wit to choose to make himself
so. I, on my way through life, judge men and women, and I judge
them--well, with few exceptions, unerringly, but at the back of my brain
there lingers something of mistrust of this young man. I have seen
others in his position accept similar proposals. I have seen the
struggles of shame, the doubts, the assertion of some part of a man's
lower nature reconciling him in the end to accepting the pay of a foreign
country. I have seen none of these things in this young man--simply a
cold and deliberate acceptance of my proposals. He conforms to no type.
He sets up before me a problem which I myself have failed wholly to
solve. I come to you, dear lady, for your aid."

"I am to spy upon the spy," she remarked.

"It is an easy task," Selingman declared. "This young man is your slave.
Whatever your daily business