t is it?" she said.

"Bad business, I'm afraid. Something must be done at once. I have been
trying to arrange things, but they will not wait. They are even
threatening to sell up this house."

With a sense of outrage, Gyp cried:

"Nearly everything here is mine."

Rosek shook his head.

"The lease is in his name--you are his wife. They can do it, I assure
you." A sort of shadow passed over his face, and he added: "I cannot
help him any more--just now."

Gyp shook her head quickly.

"No--of course! You ought not to have helped him at all. I can't
bear--" He bowed, and she stopped, ashamed. "How much does he owe
altogether?"

"About thirteen hundred pounds. It isn't much, of course. But there is
something else--"

"Worse?"

Rosek nodded.

"I am afraid to tell you; you will think again perhaps that I am trying
to make capital out of it. I can read your thoughts, you see. I cannot
afford that you should think that, this time."

Gyp made a little movement as though putting away his words.

"No; tell me, please."

Rosek shrugged his shoulders.

"There is a man called Wagge, an undertaker--the father of someone you
know--"

"Daphne Wing?"

"Yes. A child is coming. They have made her tell. It means the
cancelling of her engagements, of course--and other things."

Gyp uttered a little laugh; then she said slowly:

"Can you tell me, please, what this Mr.--Wagge can do?"

Again Rosek shrugged his shoulders.

"He is rabid--a rabid man of his class is dangerous. A lot of money will
be wanted, I should think--some blood, perhaps."

He moved swiftly to her, and said very low:

"Gyp, it is a year since I told you of this. You did not believe me
then. I told you, too, that I loved you. I love you more, now, a
hundred times! Don't move! I am going up to Gustav."

He turned, and Gyp thought he was really going; but he stopped and came
back past the line of the window. The expression of his face was quite
changed, so hungry that, for a moment, she felt sorry for him. And that
must have shown in her face, for he suddenly caught at her, and tried to
kiss her lips; she wrenched back, and he could only reach her throat, but
that he kissed furiously. Letting her go as suddenly, he bent his head
and went out without a look.

Gyp stood wiping his kisses off her throat with the back of her hand,
dumbly, mechanically thinking: "What have I done to be treated like this?
What HAVE I done?"