near to hating Paul, and this, too, Don perceived with
the clairvoyance of love. But because he was a very noble gentleman
indeed, and at least as worthy of honour as the immortal Bussy
d'Amboise, he sought not to advantage himself but to plead the cause of
his friend and to lighten the sorrow of Flamby. "Have you tried hard not
to care so much?"

Flamby nodded desperately, her eyes wells of tears.

"And it was useless?"

"Oh!" she cried, "I am mad! I hate myself! I hate myself!" She withdrew
her hands and leapt on to the settee wildly, pressing her face against
the cushions.

Don inhaled a deep breath and stood watching her. He thrust his hands
into the pockets of his tunic. "Have you considered, Flamby, what a
hopeless thing it is."

"Of course, of course! I should loathe and despise any other girl who
was such a wicked little fool. Dad would have killed me, and I should
have deserved it!"

"Don't blame Paul too much, Flamby."

"I don't. I am glad that he can be so mean," she sobbed. "It helps me
not to like him any more!"

"Paul is no ordinary man, Flamby, but neither is he a magician. How
could you expect him to know?"

"He never even asked me."

Don, watching her, suddenly recognised that he could trust himself to
pursue this conversation no further. "Tell me why you wanted to see
Orlando James again," he said.

Flamby looked up quickly, and Don's hands clenched themselves in his
pockets when he saw her tear-stained face. "I am afraid," she replied,
"to tell you--now."

"Why are you afraid now, Flamby?"

"Because you will think----"

"I shall think nothing unworthy of you, Flamby."

"I went," said Flamby, twisting a little lace handkerchief in her hands,
"because I was afraid--for Paul."

"For Paul!"

"You are beginning to wonder already."

"I am beginning to wonder but not to doubt. In what way were you
afraid?"

"He is so sure."

"Sure that he has found the truth?"

"Not that, but sure that he is right in making it known."

Don hesitated. He, too, had had his moments of doubt, but he perceived
that Flamby's doubts were based upon some matter of which at present he
knew nothing. "Paul believes quite sincerely that he has been chosen for
this task," he said. "He believes his present circumstances, or _Karma_,
to be due to a number of earlier incarnations devoted to the pursuit of
knowledge."

"Do you think if that was true he would make so many mistakes about
people?" asked Flamby,