there'll be a fire to-night and
perhaps there won't. I'm fully insured.'

'By Jove!' Bastable looked at her critically. Cairns had been a lucky
man. 'Well, Mrs Ferris,' he added, 'we're not used to troublesome
customers like you. I don't suppose the furniture is valuable, is it?'

'Oh, a couple of hundred,' said Victoria dishonestly.

'M'm. Do you absolutely want me to pledge myself?'

'Absolutely.'

'Well, Mrs Ferris, I can honestly promise you that you won't hear
anything more about it. I . . . I don't think it would pay us.'

Victoria laughed. A great joy of triumph was upon her. She liked
Bastable rather, now she had brought him to heel.

'All right,' she said, 'it's a bargain.' Then she saw that his mouth was
smiling still and his eyes fixed on her face.

'There's no quarrel between us, is there?'

'No, of course not. All in the way of business, you know.'

He bent across the table; she heard him breathe in her perfume.

'Then,' she said slowly, getting up and pulling on her gloves, 'I'm not
doing anything to-night. You know my address. Seven o'clock. You may
take me out to dinner.'

CHAPTER IX

WITHIN a few days of her victory over Mr Bastable, Victoria found
herself in an introspective mood. The solicitor was the origin of it,
though unimportant in himself as the grain of sand which falls into a
machine, and for a fraction of a second causes a wheel to rasp before
the grain is crunched up. She reflected, as she looked out over her
garden, that she was getting very hard. She had brought this man to his
knees by threats; she had vulgarly bullied him by holding exposure over
his head; she had behaved like a tragedy queen. Finally, with sardonic
intention, she had turned the contest to good account by entangling him
while he was still under the influence of her personality.

All this was not what disturbed her; for after all she had only lied to
Bastable, bullied him, threatened him, bluffed as to her intentions: she
had been perfectly businesslike. Thoughtfully she opened the little door
at the end of the hall and stepped out on the outer landing where the
garden steps ended. Snoo and Poo, asleep in a heap in the August blaze,
raised heavy eyelids, and, yawning and stretching, followed her down the
steps.

This was a joyful little garden. The greater part of it was a lawn,
close cut, but disfigured in many places by Snoo and Poo's digging.
Flower beds ran along both sides and the top of the