some men of the
soldier type engaged in desultory conversation. "I have to accuse you of
it. I want you to glance through this before you answer me."

He drew from his pocket and passed across the letter which Ann had given
him that morning--the letter which, to quote her words, "Might make
things seem more sensible-like to your Lordship's friend at the War
Office." It was unaddressed, but as Braithwaite's eye fell on the
sprawling handwriting of the contents, the deep flush which crept across
his face betrayed the fact that it was recognized. He commenced to read
the sheet with a studied carelessness; as he proceeded, the carelessness
gave way to a troubled frown. For some time after he had finished, he
sat motionless. When he looked up, his mood was contemptuous. "So this
is your price?"

"No price was mentioned."

"But it was implied. You tell me that, at the time that I was being
accepted, you yourself were hoping to be engaged to Miss Beddow; then
you hand me this letter. What do you suppose I infer? What would any man
infer? That your promise to keep my existence a secret from Ann is
conditional on the breaking of my engagement with Miss Beddow."

"Handing you Ann's letter wouldn't do that. Your engagement with Miss
Beddow is already broken."

Braithwaite jerked his chair back and stared. Then the audacity of such
an assertion touched his sense of humor. He fell to laughing. "That at
least is an invention."

Tabs showed no resentment. There was something disturbingly convincing
about his self-possession. "Didn't I tell you," he asked patiently,
"that you'd find it difficult to believe a good many things before I had
ended? I had an appointment to see Miss Beddow at her father's house
this morning at eleven. Before I'd finished breakfast she was visiting
me instead. She had called to make two requests: that I would see you
to-day and get her promise back, and that I'd become engaged to her
myself."

Braithwaite lurched forward, folding his arms on the table. His voice
was thick with passion when he spoke. "What you tell me sounds mad; but
you'd gain nothing by telling it if it were not true."

"Nothing," Tabs confirmed.

"No, nothing. If it weren't true, I could go to the telephone and
disprove your falsehood inside of ten minutes."

"You could."

"Then it is true--which means that you've ousted me. And that's why you
can afford to be so calm and Christ-like. I've been wondering how you'd
contrived t