that for some reason or other your presence here
seems to be an annoyance to certain people. Why it should be I don't
know, but I want to ask you about it. Will you tell me the truth? Are
you sure that you did not come here to spy upon me?"

"I certainly did not," Hunterleys answered firmly. "I had no idea that
you were near the place. If I had--"

She turned her head. The smile was there once more and a queer, soft
light in her eyes.

"If you had?" she murmured.

"My visit here, under the present circumstances, would have been more
distasteful than it is," Hunterleys replied stiffly.

She bit her lip and turned away. When she resumed the conversation, her
tone was completely changed.

"I speak to you now," she said, "in your own interests. Mr. Draconmeyer
is, of course, not personally connected with this affair, whatever it
may be, but he is a wonderful man and he hears many things. To-night,
before dinner, he gave me a few words of warning. He did not tell me to
pass them on to you but I feel sure that he hoped I would. You would not
listen to them from him because you do not like him. I am afraid that
you will take very little more heed of what I say, but at least you will
believe that I speak in your own interests. Mr. Draconmeyer believes
that your presence here is misunderstood. A person whom he describes as
being utterly without principle and of great power is incensed by it. To
speak plainly, you are in danger."

"I am flattered," Hunterleys remarked, "by this interest on my behalf."

She turned her head and looked at him. His face, in this cold light
before the moon came up, was almost like the face of some marble statue,
lifeless, set, of almost stonelike severity. She knew the look so well
and she sighed.

"You need not be," she replied bitterly. "Mine is merely the ordinary
feeling of one human creature for another. In a sense it seems absurd, I
suppose, to speak to you as I am doing. Yet I do know that this place
which looks so beautiful has strange undercurrents. People pass away
here in the most orthodox fashion in the world, outwardly, but their
real ending is often never known at all. Everything is possible here,
and Mr. Draconmeyer honestly believes that you are in danger."

They had reached the end of the Terrace and they turned back.

"I thank you very much, Violet," Hunterleys said earnestly. "In return,
may I say something to you? If there is any danger threatening me or
those interest