y devil!"

Again she looked at him closely.

"There is nothing tangible?" she asked. "No complaint, or scandal, or
anything of that sort?"

He rejected the suggestion with scorn.

"No!" he said. "I am not such an idiot as that. All the same there is
the feeling. They don't care to play bridge with me. There is only
young Engleton who takes my part, and so far as playing bridge for
money is concerned, he would be worth the whole lot put together if
only I could get him away from them--make up a little party somewhere,
and have him to myself for a week or two."

The Princess was thoughtful.

"To go abroad at this time of the year," she remarked, "is almost
impossible. Besides, you have only just come back."

"Absolutely impossible," he answered. "Besides, I shouldn't care to do
it just now. It looks like running away. A week or so ago you were
talking of taking a villa down the river. I wondered whether you had
thought any more of it."

The Princess shook her head.

"I dare not," she answered. "I have gone already further than I meant
to. This house and the servants and carriages are costing me a small
fortune. I dare not even look at my bills. Another house is not to be
thought of."

Major Forrest looked gloomily at the shining tip of his patent boot.

"It's jolly hard luck," he muttered. "A quiet place somewhere in the
country, with Engleton and you and myself, and another one or two, and
I should be able to pull through. As it is, I feel inclined to chuck it
all."

The Princess looked at him curiously. He was certainly more than
ordinarily pale, and the hand which rested upon the side of his chair
was twitching a little nervously.

"My dear Nigel," she said, "do go to the chiffonier there and help
yourself to a drink. I hate to see you white to the lips, and trembling
as though death itself were at your elbow. Borrow a little false
courage, if you lack the real thing."

The man obeyed her suggestion with scarcely a protest.

"I had hoped, Ena," he remarked a little peevishly, "to have found you
more sympathetic."

"You are so sorry for yourself," she answered, "that you seem scarcely
to need my sympathy. However, sit down and talk to me reasonably."

"I talk reasonably enough," he answered, "but I really am hard up
against it. Don't think I have come begging. I know you've done all you
can, and it's a matter with me now of more than a few hundreds. My only
hope is Engleton. Can't you suggest anyt