e finished it he threw
his pocket-handkerchief with violence on to the floor. "I know what
to do, Mrs Roper," he said. "I know what steps to take. I shall put
the affair into the hands of my lawyer to-morrow morning." Then he
picked up his handkerchief and walked down into the dining-room.

"Of course you know nothing about it?" said Eames to his friend,
having run upstairs for the purpose of saying a word to him while he
washed his hands.

"What,--about Maria? I don't know where she is, if you mean that."

"Of course I mean that. What else should I mean? And what makes you
call her Maria?"

"It is wrong. I admit it's wrong. The word will come out, you know."

"Will come out! I'll tell you what it is, old fellow, you'll get
yourself into a mess, and all for nothing. That fellow will have you
up before the police for stealing his things--"

"But, Johnny--"

"I know all about it. Of course you have not stolen them, and of
course there was nothing to steal. But if you go on calling her Maria
you'll find that he'll have a pull on you. Men don't call other men's
wives names for nothing."

"Of course we've been friends," said Cradell, who rather liked this
view of the matter.

"Yes,--you have been friends! She's diddled you out of your money,
and that's the beginning and the end of it. And now, if you go on
showing off your friendship, you'll be done out of more money. You're
making an ass of yourself. That's the long and the short of it."

"And what have you made of yourself with that girl? There are worse
asses than I am yet, Master Johnny." Eames, as he had no answer ready
to this counter attack, left the room and went downstairs. Cradell
soon followed him, and in a few minutes they were all eating their
dinner together at Mrs Roper's hospitable table.

Immediately after dinner Lupex took himself away, and the
conversation upstairs became general on the subject of the lady's
departure.

"If I was him I'd never ask a question about her, but let her go,"
said Amelia.

"Yes; and then have all her bills following you, wherever you went,"
said Amelia's brother.

"I'd sooner have her bills than herself," said Eames.

"My belief is, that she's been an ill-used woman," said Cradell. "If
she had a husband that she could respect and have loved, and all that
sort of thing, she would have been a charming woman."

"She's every bit as bad as he is," said Mrs Roper.

"I can't agree with you, Mrs Roper," continued t