t of the drawing-room and packed off the whole
tribe for the evening, all except Mrs. Dant. I kept Mrs. Dant to attend
on Camilla.

We had dinner sent up; it was like a picnic, jolly and childish.
Camilla was charming. And then I took photographs of her by flashlight,
with immense success. We developed them together in the dark-room. That
evening was the first time I had ever been really happy in all my life.
And I was really happy, although every now and then the idea would shoot
through my head: 'Only for a year or two at most; perhaps only for a day
or two!'

I returned to the dark-room alone for something or other, and when I
came back into the drawing-room she was not there. By heaven! my heart
went into my mouth. I feared she had run away, after all. However, I met
her in the passage. She looked very frightened; her face was quite
changed; but she said nothing had occurred. I kissed her; she let me.

Soon afterwards she went on to the roof. She tried to be cheerful, but I
saw she had something on her mind. She said she must go home, and begged
my permission to precede me into the flat in order to prepare for her
departure. I consented. When ten minutes had elapsed I followed, and in
the drawing-room, instead of finding Camilla, I found Louis Ravengar.

I needn't describe my surprise at all that.

Ravengar was beside himself with rage. I gathered after a time that he
claimed Camilla as his own. He said I had stolen her from him. I
couldn't tell exactly what he was driving at, but I parleyed with him a
little until I could get my revolver out of a drawer in my escritoire.
He jumped at me. I thrust him back without firing, and we stood each of
us ready for murder. I couldn't say how long that lasted. Suddenly he
glanced across the room, and his eyes faltered, and I became aware that
Camilla had entered silently. I was so startled at her appearance and by
the transformation in Ravengar that I let off the revolver
involuntarily. I heard Camilla order him, in a sharp, low voice, to
leave instantly. He defied her for a second, and then went. Before
leaving he stuttered, in a dreadful voice: 'I shall kill you'--meaning
her. 'I may as well hang for one thing as for another.'

I said to Camilla, gasping: 'What is it all? What does it mean?'

She then told me, after confessing that she had caught Ravengar hiding
in the dressing-room, and had actually suspected that I had been in
league with him against her, that long