y.

He began to tell her he hoped she would be very happy, but she stayed
him and suddenly sobered.

"Not now. We haven't much time left, and we must plan something. Meryl
will come here and call for me soon in the motor. She knows I have
come to see a friend, but she does not know whom. She will not come in
herself, because she is shy about being seen just now. What shall we
do? When will you see her?"

He got up, and walked to the window with a grave face, and for some
time he did not speak.

"Are you still worrying about that absurd money? My dear good man, she
isn't stuffed with it, and she doesn't care tuppence about it. Isn't
it enough that you know she could love you as a Rhodesian
soldier-policeman? Why torture yourself unnecessarily?"

"If I were only a Rhodesian policeman I should not have come."

She looked at him with quick curiosity. Then something had happened!
There really was some great change in him. He smiled into her
questioning eyes. "Then Mrs. Grenville did not tell you?"

"Tell me what?..." with swift eagerness. "O, do be quick, I love
surprises. Have you found a gold-mine up there?... or the corpses in
the temple hung with gold ornaments?..."

"Neither."

She took his arm and gave it a little shake.

"Then what? O, do tell me quickly!..."

"It isn't very much, but it gives me courage to hope, where a
policeman might consider himself called upon only to renounce. And,"
he added, quietly, "I owe the knowledge of it to Mrs. Grenville."

"It must be a legacy?..."

"Not exactly. It is only that when the present Marquis of Toxeter dies
I shall succeed."

"O, my goodness!..." comically. "Am I going to be own cousin to a
marchioness?..."

"That is as your cousin decrees." Then with a little smile he added,
"So the shocks are not all given by you, you see."

At that moment a knock sounded on the door, and in reply to Carew's
"Come in," a hall-porter informed them that Miss Pym was waiting in
the motor.

"And we haven't decided what to do," said Diana, in dismay.

He was thoughtful a moment, then told her he would endeavour to find
Mr. Pym at his office and come to Hill Court later.

So Diana went downstairs alone. But on the way, with that mixture of
restlessness and level-headedness that was so characteristic of her,
she decided Carew's plan was much too prosaic and dull, and speedily
commenced to think out a better one. After which she accosted Meryl
with the words, "I want to i