Fate
were finding simpler to solve every minute. Of all the luxuries he
permitted himself openly or furtively, one--the rarest of them all--his
self-denial had practically eliminated from the list: the luxury
of punishing where no end was served save that of mere personal
satisfaction. The temptation of this luxury now presented itself;
and the means of gratification were so simple, so secret, so easy to
command, that the temptation became almost a duty.

Siward he had not turned out of his way to injure; Siward had been in
the way, that was all, and his ruin was to have been merely an agreeable
coincidence with the purposed ruin of Amalgamated Electric before
Inter-County absorbed the fragments. But here was a new phase; Mrs.
Mortimer, whom he had expected to use, and if necessary sacrifice, had
suddenly turned vicious. And he now hated her as coldly as he hated
Major Belwether for betraying suspicions of a similar nature. As for
Plank, fear and hatred of him was becoming hatred and contempt. He
had the means of checking Plank if Mortimer did not drop dead before
midnight. There remained Sylvia, whom he had selected as the fittest
object attainable to transmit his name. Long ago, whatever of liking,
of affection, of passion he had ever entertained for her had quieted to
indifference and the unemotional contemplation of a future methodically
arranged for. Now of a sudden, this young girl he had bought--he knowing
what she sold and what he was paying for--had become exposed to the
infection of a suspicion concerning himself and another woman; a woman
unmarried, and of his own caste, and numbered among her own friends.

And he knew enough of Sylvia to know that if anybody could once arouse
her suspicion nothing on earth could induce her to look into his face
again. Suppose Leila should do so this evening?

Certainly Quarrier had several matters to ponder over and provide for;
and first and foremost of all to provide for his own security and the
vital necessity of preserving his name and his character untainted. In
this he had to deal with that miserable judge who had betrayed him; with
Mortimer, who had once black-mailed him and who now was temporarily in
his service; with Mrs. Mortimer, who--God knew how, when, or where--had
become suspicious of Agatha and himself; with Major Belwether, who had
deserted him before he could sacrifice the major, and whom he now
hated and feared for having stumbled over suspicions simila