placently between his words. "I never
thought you'd do it. The odds were dead against you. She only married you
to get away from Aunt Philippa. Of course you know that?"

"Really?" Mordaunt said again. He was not apparently paying much
attention to the boy's chatter.

"Yes, really," Noel reiterated, with a grin. "It's solid, simple, sordid
fact. The only chap she ever seriously cared about was a little beast of
a Frenchman she chummed up with years ago at Valpre. I never met the
beggar myself, but I'm sure he was a beast. But I'll bet she'd have
married him if she'd had the chance. They were as thick as thieves."

At this point Mordaunt opened the morning paper with a bored expression,
and straightway immersed himself in its contents.

Noel turned his attention to his breakfast, which he dispatched with
astonishing rapidity, finally remarking, as he rose: "But you never can
tell what a woman will do when it comes to the point--unless she's a
suffragette, in which case she may be safely relied on to make a howling
donkey of herself for all time."

CHAPTER XI

A BROKEN REED

"But, my good girl, five hundred pounds!" Rupert looked down at his
sister with an expression half-humorous, half-dismayed. "What do you
think I'm made of?" he inquired.

She stood before him, nervously clasping and unclasping her hands. "I
must have it! I must have it!" she said piteously. "I thought you might
be able to raise it on something."

"But not on nothing," said Rupert.

"I would pay it back," she urged. "I could begin to pay back almost at
once."

"Why on earth don't you ask Trevor for it?" he said. "He's the proper
person to go to."

"Oh, I know," she answered. "And so I would for anything else, but not
for this--not for this! He would ask questions, questions I couldn't
possibly answer. And--oh, I couldn't--I couldn't!"

"What have you been up to?" said Rupert curiously.

"Nothing--nothing whatever. I've done nothing wrong." Chris almost wrung
her hands in her agitation. "But I can't tell you or anyone what I want
it for. Oh, Rupert, you will help me! I know you will!"

"Steady!" said Rupert. "Don't get hysterical, my child. That won't serve
anybody's turn. I suppose you've been extravagant, and daren't own up.
Trevor is a bit of a Tartar, I own. But five hundred pounds! It's utterly
beyond my reach."

"Couldn't you borrow it from someone?" pleaded Chris. "Rupert, it's only
for a time. I'll pay back a little