When Mavis told him of the Pimlico supplied milk, which she had
sterilised herself, he shook his head.

"That accounts for the whole trouble," he remarked. "You should have
fed him yourself."

"It didn't agree with him, and then it went away," Mavis told him.

"Ah, you had worry?"

"A bit. Do you think he'll pull through?"

"I'll tell you more to-night," he informed her.

Mavis attracted men. The doctor, not being blind to her fascinations,
was not indisposed to linger for a moment's conversation, after he had
treated the baby's throat, during which Mavis thought it necessary to
tell him the old story of the husband in America who was preparing a
home for her.

"Some chap's been low enough to land that charming girl with that
baby," thought the doctor as he walked home. "She's as innocent as they
make 'em, otherwise she wouldn't have told me that silly husband yarn.
If she were an old hand, she'd have kept her mouth shut."

Meanwhile, Mavis had been summoned downstairs to a conference, in which
the broker's man (his name was Gunner), Mrs Trivett, and a man named
Hutton, whom Mr Trivett had fetched, took part.

Mavis was informed that Mr Hutton would lend her the money needed to
get rid of Mr Gunner's embarrassing presence, for which she was to pay
two pounds interest, if repaid in a month, and eight pounds interest a
year during which the capital sum was being repaid by monthly
instalments.

"I will telegraph to Germany," said Mavis. "You shall have the money
next week at latest."

Mr Hutton wanted guarantees; failing these, was Mavis in any kind of
employment?

Mavis told him how she was employed by Mr Devitt.

The man opened his eyes. Had the lady proof of this statement?

Mavis thrust her hand into her pocket, believing she might find the
letter which Montague Devitt had written to Pimlico. She brought out,
instead, the letter the foreman had put into her hand when she was
leaving in reply to Mrs Trivett's summons. The envelope of this was
addressed in Mr Devitt's hand.

"Here's a letter from him here," declared Mavis, as she tore it open to
glance at its contents before passing it on to Hutton.

But the glance hardened into a look of deadly seriousness as her eyes
fell on what was written. She re-read the letter two or three times
before she grasped its import.

"Dear Miss Keeves," it ran, "it is with the very deepest regret that I
write to say that certain facts have come to my knowledge w