all their days he had never known her
so much in earnest, so passionately insistent. He looked from her to the
man whom she sought to protect, and who answered, unasked, the thoughts
that were in his mind.

"Whatever harm I may have been able to do," Lessingham announced, "is
finished. I leave this place to-night, probably for ever. As for the
Commandant," he went on with a faint smile, "he is already upon my
track. There is nothing you can tell him about me which he does not
know. It is just a matter of hours, the toss of a coin, whether I get
away or not."

"They've found you out, then?" Richard exclaimed.

"Only a miracle saved me from arrest a week ago," Lessingham
acknowledged. "Your Commandant here is at the present moment in London
for the sole purpose of denouncing me."

"And yet you remain here, paying afternoon calls?" Richard observed
incredulously. "I'm hanged if I can see through this!"

"You see," Lessingham explained gently. "I am a fatalist!"

It was Helen who finally led her lover from the room. He looked back
from the door.

"Maderstrom," he said, "you know quite well how personally I feel
towards you. I am grateful for what you have done for me, even though I
am beginning to understand your motives. But as regards the other things
we are both soldiers. I am going to talk to Helen for a time. I want to
understand a little more than I do at present."

Lessingham nodded.

"Let me help you," he begged. "Here is the issue in plain words. All
that I did for you at Wittenberg, I should have done in any case for
the sake of our friendship. Your freedom would probably never have been
granted to me but for my mission, although even that I might have tried
to arrange. I brought your letters here, and I traded them with your
sister and Miss Fairclough for the shelter of their hospitality and
their guarantees. Now you know just where friendship ended and the other
things began. Do what you believe to be your duty."

Richard followed Helen out, closing the door after him. Lessingham
looked down into Philippa's face.

"You are more wonderful even than I thought," he continued softly. "You
say so little and you live so near the truth. It is those of us who feel
as you do--who understand--to whom this war is so terrible."

"I want to ask you one question before I send you away," she told him.
"This journey to America?"

"It is a mission on behalf of Germany," he explained, "but it is, after
all, an op