edy beyond the one
with which Dane threatens us. I do not wish to marry you."

She suddenly blazed up.

"Because--?"

"Not because of any reason in the world," he interrupted, "except that I
love Elizabeth Dalstan."

"Does she want to marry you?"

He was suddenly an altered person. Some of his confidence seemed to
desert him. He shook his head doubtfully.

"I am not sure. Sometimes I think that she would. Sometimes I fancy that
it is only a great kindness of heart, an immense sympathy, a kind of
protective sympathy, which has made her so good to me."

She looked at herself steadily for a moment in the mirror. Then she
pulled down her veil.

"Philip," she said, "we find out the truth when we are up against things
like this. I used to think I could live alone. I can't. Whatever you may
think of me, I was fond of Douglas. It wasn't only for the sake of the
money and the comfort. He was kind, and in his way he understood. And
then, you know, misery didn't agree with you. You were often, even in
those few hours we spent together, very hard and cold. Anyway," she
added, with a little tightening of the lips, "I am going to get my money
now. No one can stop that. You stay here and think it over. It would be
better to marry me, Philip, and be safe, than to have the fear of that
man Dane always before you. And wait--wait till you see me when I come
back!" she went on, her spirits rapidly rising as she moved towards the
door. "You'll change your mind then, Philip. You were always so
impressionable, weren't you? A little touch of colour, the perfume of
flowers, a single soft word spoken at the right moment--anything that
took your fancy made such a difference. Well--just wait till I come
back!"

She closed the door. Philip heard her descend in the lift. He moved to
the window and watched for her on the pavement. She appeared there in a
moment or two and waited whilst the boy whistled for a taxicab, her face
expectantly upraised, one hand resting lightly on her bosom, just over
the spot where her pocketbook lay.

CHAPTER XVI

Philip was still gazing into vacancy and smoking cigarettes when
Elizabeth arrived. She seemed conscious at once of the disturbed
atmosphere. His hands, which she held firmly in hers, were as cold as
ice.

"Is that girl going to be troublesome?" she demanded anxiously.

"Not in the way we feared," he replied. "All the same, the plot has
thickened so far as I am concerned. That fellow Dane