k entered the
Foreign Office. That is three years ago. We have seen each other
constantly since, and, of course, when I became engaged to his sister
our friendship became, if anything, stronger."

"Nothing could be more admirably expressed. Do you know anything about
his private affairs?"

"Financially, do you mean?"

"Well, yes, to begin with."

"He got a salary, I suppose, from Government, but he has a private
income of some thousands a year."

"Then he is not likely to be embarrassed for money?"

"Most unlikely. He is a particularly steady chap--full of eagerness to
follow a diplomatic career and that sort of thing. Why, he would sooner
read a blue-book than the _Pink 'Un_!"

"If you were told that he had bolted with a nondescript young woman,
what would you say?"

"Say!" vociferated Fairholme, springing up from the seat into which he
had subsided, "I would tell the man who said so that he was a d----d
liar!"

"Exactly. Of course you would! Yet here are all kinds of people--Foreign
Office officials, policemen, and hangers-on of the British Embassy in
Paris--ready to swear, perhaps to prove, if necessary, that Talbot and
some smartly-dressed female went to Paris quite openly by the day
service yesterday, and even took care to announce ostentatiously their
arrival in the French capital."

For a moment the two men faced each other silently, the one amused by
the news he was imparting, the other staggered by its seeming absurdity.
Then Fairholme flung himself back into his chair.

"Look here, Mr. Brett," he went on, "if Jack himself stood there and
told me that what you have said is true I would hardly believe it." A
note of agony came into his voice, as he added: "Do you know what this
means to his sister? My God, man, it will kill her!"

"It will do nothing of the sort," cried Brett. "Surely you understand
Miss Talbot better. She will be the first to proclaim to the world what
you and I believe, namely, that her brother is innocent, no matter how
black appearances may be. I have no knowledge of him save what I have
learned within the last few hours, yet I stake my reputation on the
certainty that he is in no way connected with this terrible occurrence
save by compulsion."

"It gives one renewed courage to hear you speak so confidently," said
the earl, his face lighting with enthusiasm as he looked eagerly at the
other, whose earnestness had, for an instant, lifted the veil from
features usually calm a