of course, her going away had
something to do with it?"

"Yes, it had."

Hilliard laid his hands on the girl's shoulders.

"You've got to tell me the plain truth, and be quick about it. I
suppose you haven't any idea of the torments I'm suffering. I shall
begin to think you're making a fool of me, and that there's nothing
but--though that's bad enough for me."

"Very well, I'll tell you. She went away because it came out that the
man was married."

"Oh, that's it?" He spoke from a dry throat. "She told you herself?"

"Yes, not long after she came back. She said, of course, she could have
no more to do with him. She used to meet him pretty often----"

"Stay, how did she get to know him first?"

"Just by chance--somewhere."

"I understand," said Hilliard grimly. "Go on."

"And his wife got someone to spy on him, and they found out he was
meeting Eve, and she jumped out on them when they were walking
somewhere together, and told Eve everything. He wasn't living with his
wife, and hasn't been for a long time."

"What's his position?"

"He's in business, and seems to have lots of money; but I don't exactly
know what it is he does."

"You are afraid, then, that Eve is being drawn back to him?"

"I feel sure she is--and it's dreadful."

"What I should like to know," said Hilliard, harshly, "is whether she
really cares for him, or only for his money."

"Oh! How horrid you are! I never thought you could say such a thing!"

"Perhaps you didn't. All the same, it's a question. I don't pretend to
understand Eve Madeley, and I'm afraid you are just as far from knowing
her."

"I don't know her? Why, what are you talking about, Mr. Hilliard?"

"What do you think of her, then? Is she a good-hearted girl or----"

"Or what? Of course she's good-hearted. The things that men do say!
They seem to be all alike."

"Women are so far from being all alike that one may think she
understands another, and be utterly deceived. Eve has shown her best
side to you, no doubt. With me, she hasn't taken any trouble to do so.
And if----"

"Hush!"

This time the alarm was justified. A latchkey rattled at the
house-door, the door opened, and in the same moment Patty turned out
the light.

"It's my uncle," she whispered, terror-stricken. "Don't stir."

CHAPTER XII

A heavy footstep sounded in the passage, and Hilliard, to whose
emotions was now added a sense of ludicrous indignity, heard talk
between Patty and her u