aid Miss Van Tuyn, in a voice which startled Braybrooke.

"I don't promise," said the painter. "I don't believe in promises,
unless you break 'em. But it's just on the cards."

"You are painting a blackmailer!" said Braybrooke, with an air of
earnest interest. "How very original!"

"Original! Why is it original to paint a blackmailer?"

"Oh--well, one doesn't often run across them. They--they seem to keep so
much to themselves."

"I don't agree with you. If they did some people would be a good deal
better off than they are now."

"Ah, to be sure! That's very true. I had never looked at it in that
light."

"What time, Dick?" said Miss Van Tuyn, rather eagerly.

"You might look in about three."

"I will. That's a bargain."

Garstin turned on his heel and tramped away towards Berkeley Street.

"You are going home by Park Lane?" said Braybrooke, feeling greatly
relieved, but still rather upset.

"Yes. But why don't you take me somewhere to tea?"

"Nothing I should like better. Where shall we go?"

"Let's go to the Ritz. I had meant to walk, but let us take a taxi."

There was suddenly a change in Miss Van Tuyn. Braybrooke noticed it at
once. She seemed suddenly restless, almost excited, and as if she were
in a hurry.

"There's one!" she added, lifting her tightly furled umbrella.

The driver stopped, and in a moment they were on their way to the Ritz.

"You like Dick Garstin?" said Braybrooke, pulling up one of the windows
and wondering what Miss Cronin would say if she could see him at this
moment.

"I don't like him," returned Miss Van Tuyn. "No one could do that. But I
admire him, and he interests me. He is almost the only man I know who
is really indifferent to opinion. And he has occasional moments of good
nature. But I don't wish him to be soft. If he were he would be like
everyone else."

"I must confess I find it very difficult to get on with him."

"He's a wonderful painter."

"No doubt--in his way."

"I think it a great mistake for any creative artist to be wonderful in
someone else's way," said Miss Van Tuyn.

"I only meant that his way is sometimes rather startling. And then
his subjects! Drugged women! Dram drinking men! And now it seems even
blackmailers."

"A blackmailer might have a wonderful face."

"Possibly. But it would be likely to have a disgusting expression."

"It might. On the other hand, I could imagine a blackmailer looking like
Chaliapine as Mephistopheles."