."
Then the colour crept into Millicent's face. "You don't seem to
remember me, Lieutenant Blake."

Blake, who had learned self-control, did not start, though he came near
doing so as he recalled a scene he had taken part in some years
earlier. He had just risen from a dining-table, where the talk had
been of favourite dancers and the turf, and the wine had circulated too
freely, and entered a small drawing-room with several men whom his host
was assisting in a career of dissipation. As they came in a girl rose
from the piano and on seeing her Blake felt a sense of awkwardness and
shame. She looked very fresh and pretty, untainted, he thought, by her
surroundings, and the annoyance in her father's face suggested that he
had not expected to find her there. Blake saw that she shrank from his
noisy companions in alarm. One of them, who had drunk too deep, not
noticing that she was startled and imagining that she was a fit subject
for rough gallantry, pursued her as she tried to escape, but Blake with
a quick movement reached a switch and cut off the light. Next moment
he seized the offender and hustled him out of the room. He had saved
an awkward situation and was afterwards thanked by the man he had
roughly handled.

"It would have been inexcusable if I had forgotten you," he answered
with a smile. "Still, I couldn't quite place you until a few moments
ago, when you faced the light. But you were wrong in one thing; I'm no
longer Lieutenant Blake."

She appreciated the frankness which had prompted this warning and saw
that she had made a tactless blunder, but she looked at him steadily.

"I forgot," she said; "forgive me. I heard of--what happened in
India--but I felt that there must have been some mistake." She
hesitated for a moment. "I think so now."

Blake made a sudden movement, and then leaned back against the rails.
"I'm afraid that an acquaintance which lasted three or four minutes
could hardly enable you to judge; first impressions are often wrong,
you know. Anyhow, I don't complain of the opinion of gentlemen who
knew more about me."

Millicent saw that the subject must be dropped and resuming, said: "At
our first meeting I had no opportunity of thanking you, and you gave me
none to-night. It's curious that while I've only met you twice, on
both occasions you turned up just when you were needed. Is it a habit
of yours?"

"That's a flattering thing to hint. The man who's always on hand wh