you did not tell Dick Garstin."

"No."

"And you came here to me."

"No, no! With you!"

"To my rooms in spite of your grief. We are friends from to-night."

"To-night . . . but it is afternoon!"

He still had her hand in his. She felt, or fancied she felt, a pulse
beating in his hand. It gave her a sense of terrible intimacy with him,
as if she were close to the very sources of his being. And yet she knew
nothing about him.

"It gets dark so early now," he said.

Dark! As he said it she thought, "That's his word! That's his word!"
Everyone has his word, and dark was Arabian's.

"Good-bye!" she said.

"I will take you down."

Quietly and very naturally, he let her hand go. And at once she had a
sensation of being out in the cold.

They went down together in the lift. Just as they left it, and were in
the hall, a woman whom Miss Van Tuyn knew slightly, a Mrs. Birchington,
an intimate of the Ackroyde and Lady Wrackley set, met them coming from
the entrance.

"Oh, Miss Van Tuyn!" she said, stopping.

She held out her hand, looking from Miss Van Tuyn to Arabian.

"How are you?"

Her light eyes were searching and inquisitive. She had an evening paper
in her hand.

"I--I am so grieved," she added, again looking at Arabian.

"Mr. Arabian--Mrs. Birchington!" Miss Van Tuyn felt obliged to say.

Mrs. Birchington and Arabian bowed.

"Grieved!" said Miss Van Tuyn.

"Yes. I have just seen the sad news about your father in the paper."

Miss Van Tuyn realized at once that she was caught, unless she lied. But
she did not choose to lie before Arabian. Something--her pride of a free
American girl, perhaps--forbade that. And she only said:

"Thank you for your sympathy. Good-bye."

"Good-bye!"

Mrs. Birchington bowed again to Arabian, swept him with her sharp
inquisitive eyes, and stepped into the lift.

"She lives here," he said, "in the apartment opposite to mine."

As Miss Van Tuyn drove away towards Claridge's she wondered whether
Arabian was glad because of that fortuitous meeting.

Because of it her close intimacy with him--it would certainly now be
called, and thought of, as that--would very soon be public property.
All those women would hear about it. How crazy she had been to visit
Arabian's flat at such a moment! She was angry with herself, and yet she
believed that in like circumstances she would do the same thing again.
Her power of will had deserted her, or this man, Arabian, had the power