she said, "we won't talk about the past. You are safe so far
as I am concerned--for the present, at any rate. But Madame must know,
and your friends in Charing Cross Road."

"We will close the office to-morrow for a little time," Saton
declared. "It's no use running risks like this."

"The old lady must have made a tidy pile out of it," Violet declared,
flourishing an over-scented handkerchief. "If she takes my advice, she
will go quiet for a little time. I can feel trouble when it's about,
and I have felt it the last few days."

"It is very good of you, Violet, to have sent for me at once," he
said. "I know you won't mind if I hurry away. It is very important
that I see Madame."

"Of course," she agreed. "But when will you take me out to dinner?
To-night or to-morrow night?"

"To-morrow night," he promised, eager to escape. "If anything happens
that I can't, I'll let you know."

She laid her hand upon his arm as they descended the stairs.

"Bertrand," she said, "if I were you, I'd make it to-morrow night...."

He called a taximeter cab, and drove rapidly to Berkeley Square. In
the room where she usually sat he found Rachael, looking through a
pile of foreign newspapers.

"Well?" she said, peering into his face. "You have bad news. I can see
that. What is it?"

"Helga has just sent for me," he answered. "She says that she has had
one or two mysterious visitors to-day and yesterday. One of them she
feels sure was a detective."

"Huntley has just telephoned up," Rachael said calmly. "Something of
the same sort of thing happened at the office in the Charing Cross
Road. Huntley acted like a man of sense. He closed it up at once,
destroyed all papers, and sent Dorrington over to Paris by the morning
train."

Saton sat down, and buried his face in his hands.

"Rachael," he said, "this must stop. I cannot bear the anxiety of it.
It is terrible to feel to-day that one is stretching out toward the
great things, and to-morrow that one is finding the money to live
by fooling people, by charlatanism, by roguery. Think if we were
ever connected with these places, if even a suspicion of it got
about! Think how narrow our escape was before! Remember that I have
even stood in the prisoner's dock, and escaped only through your
cleverness, and an accident. It might happen again, Rachael!"

"It shall not," she answered. "I would go there myself first. It is
well for you to talk, Bertrand, but you and I are neither of us