't think you need be afraid of MacKenzie. He'll never venture to
show his face.'

'You don't mean to say you think there's any truth in the letter?'
exclaimed Mrs. Crowley.

He turned and faced her.

'I've never read anything more convincing in my life.'

Mrs. Crowley looked at him, and he returned her glance steadily.

Of those three it was only Lady Kelsey who did not know that Lucy was
deeply in love with Alec MacKenzie.

'Perhaps you're inclined to be unjust to him,' said Mrs. Crowley.

'We shall see if he has any answer to make,' he answered coldly. 'The
evening papers are sure to get something out of him. The city is ringing
with the story, and he must say something at once.'

'It's quite impossible that there should be anything in it,' said Mrs.
Crowley. 'We all know the circumstances under which George went out with
him. It's inconceivable that he should have sacrificed him as callously
as this man's letter makes out.'

'We shall see.'

'You never liked him, Bobbie,' said Lady Kelsey.

'I didn't,' he answered briefly.

'I wish I'd never thought of giving this horrid dance,' she moaned.

Presently, however, they succeeded in calming Lady Kelsey. Though both
thought it unwise, they deferred to her wish that everything should be
hidden from Lucy till the morrow. Dick Lomas was arriving from Paris
that evening, and it would be possible then to take his advice. When at
last Mrs. Crowley left the elder woman to her own devices, her thoughts
went to Alec. She wondered where he was, and if he already knew that his
name was more prominently than ever before the public.

* * *

MacKenzie was travelling down from Lancashire. He was not a man who
habitually read papers, and it was in fact only by chance that he saw a
copy of the _Daily Mail_. A fellow traveller had with him a number of
papers, and offered one of them to Alec. He took it out of mere
politeness. His thoughts were otherwise occupied, and he scanned it
carelessly. Suddenly he saw the heading which had attracted Lady
Kelsey's attention. He read the letter, and he read the leading article.
No one who watched him could have guessed that what he read concerned
him so nearly. His face remained impassive. Then, letting the paper fall
to the ground, he began to think. Presently he turned to the amiable
stranger who had given him the paper, and asked him if he had seen the
letter.

'Awful thing, isn't it?' the man said.

Alec fixed upon him his da