ut
twelve o'clock? I walk there most mornings, and I should
feel so much happier if I could have just a word with you
about this.

Please don't think I am quite mad.

Sincerely yours,
Mary Felixstowe.

Jacob dictated a few letters, studied his stockbroker's list for half
an hour, and drove to Kensington Gardens. Lady Mary was almost the
first person he saw. She greeted him with a friendly little nod and
led him from the broad avenue into one of the narrower paths. From the
first he had been aware that Lady Mary, escaped from the shadow of her
parents, was a very different person.

"Well?" she asked, smiling at him, "what did you think of my ingenuous
little letter?"

Jacob glanced at her doubtfully. He had the impression that she was
reading his thoughts.

"You probably decided that it would amuse you to fall in with the
scheme," she continued, "although I expect you saw through it quite
easily. Well, the scheme doesn't really exist. My mother dictated the
letter and I wrote it. I haven't the least idea of giving you back a
penny of that money--in fact, it's all spent already. Still, if you
like, you can think of me as the ingenue with a conscience, who wants
reassuring but doesn't want to part. That was my role."

"I see that you have your brother's sense of humour," he remarked.

"Heaven knows where we got it from!" she exclaimed. "Mother's idea
appears to be that, as a result of this clandestine interview, I am to
walk in Kensington Gardens with you every morning until one day we
find ourselves late for luncheon and you take me to a restaurant.
Compromising situation number one. Intoxicated with pleasure, I
hint--you not being supposed to notice that it is a hint--at a dinner
and theatre. We go, are discovered, my mother asks your intentions.
Behold me, Lady Mary Pratt, restoring the family to a condition of
affluence."

Jacob laughed till the tears stood in his eyes.

"The idea doesn't seem to appeal to you!"

"Not a bit," she answered frankly. "I like you very much--I like the
little crease about your eyes, which deepens when you laugh. And I
like your mouth. But as a matter of fact, I'm rather in love with some
one else, and I'm going to marry him soon. He's got quite enough money
for me, although he can't carry the family."

Jacob sighed.

"I am in the same position," he confessed, "only the girl I'm in love
with won't have anythi