Mr. Bowmore's
assistance in the matter of your claim on Parliament; and, above all
things, stop him at the outset, when he tries to steal his way into your
intimacy. I need not caution you to say nothing against him to his wife
and daughter. His wily tongue has long since deluded them. Don't let
him delude _you!_ Have you thought any more of our evening at Doctor
Lagarde's?" he asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"I hardly know," said Percy, still under the impression of the
formidable warning which he had just received.

"Let me jog your memory," the other continued. "You went on with the
consultation by yourself, after I had left the Doctor's house. It will
be really doing me a favor if you can call to mind what Lagarde saw in
the trance--in my absence?"

Thus entreated Percy roused himself. His memory of events were still
fresh enough to answer the call that his friend had made on it. In
describing what had happened, he accurately repeated all that the Doctor
had said.

Bervie dwelt on the words with alarm in his face as well as surprise.

"A man like me, trying to persuade a woman like--" he checked himself,
as if he was afraid to let Charlotte's name pass his lips. "Trying to
induce a woman to go away with me," he resumed, "and persuading her at
last? Pray, go on! What did the Doctor see next?"

"He was too much exhausted, he said, to see any more."

"Surely you returned to consult him again?"

"No; I had had enough of it."

"When we get to London," said the Captain, "we shall pass along the
Strand, on the way to your chambers. Will you kindly drop me at the
turning that leads to the Doctor's lodgings?"

Percy looked at him in amazement. "You still take it seriously?" he
said.

"Is it _not_ serious?" Bervie asked. "Have you and I, so far, not done
exactly what this man saw us doing? Did we not meet, in the days when we
were rivals (as he saw us meet), with the pistols in our hands? Did you
not recognize his description of the lady when you met her at the ball,
as I recognized it before you?"

"Mere coincidences!" Percy answered, quoting Charlotte's opinion when
they had spoken together of Doctor Lagarde, but taking care not to cite
his authority. "How many thousand men have been crossed in love? How
many thousand men have fought duels for love? How many thousand
women choose blue for their favorite color, and answer to the vague
description of the lady whom the Doctor pretended to see?"

"Say t