r by hour. But you have lied to me, and therefore I hate myself for
having so foolishly placed my trust in you."

He had resolved to preserve his great secret--a secret that none should
know.

"Very well," he sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "These recriminations
are really all useless. Ah, if you only knew the truth, Enid! If I only
dared to reveal to you the hideous facts. But I refuse--they are too
tragic, too terrible. Better that we should part now, and that you should
remain in ignorance--better by far, for you. You believe that I am
deceiving you. Well, I'm frank and admit that I am; but it is with a
distinct purpose--for your own sake."

He held forth his hand, and slowly she took it. In silence he bowed over
it, his lips compressed; then, turning upon his heel, he went down the
gravelled walk back to the hotel, which, some ten minutes later, he left
with Fred Tredennick, catching the train back to Dundee and on to Perth.

He was in no way a man to wear his heart upon his sleeve, therefore he
chatted gaily with his friend and listened to Fred's extravagant
admiration of Enid's beauty. He congratulated himself that his old friend
was in ignorance of the truth.

A curious incident occurred at the hotel that same evening, however,
which, had Walter been aware of it, would probably have caused him
considerable uneasiness and alarm. Just before seven o'clock a tall,
rather thin, middle-aged, narrow-eyed man, dressed in dark grey tweeds,
entered the hall of the hotel and inquired for Henry, the head waiter. He
was well dressed and bore an almost professional air.

The white-headed old man quickly appeared, when the stranger, whose
moustache was carefully trimmed and who wore a ruby ring upon his white
hand, made an anxious inquiry whether Fetherston, whom he minutely
described, had been there that day. At first the head waiter hesitated
and was uncommunicative, but, the stranger having uttered a few low
words, Henry's manner instantly changed. He started, looked in wonder
into the stranger's face, and, taking him into the smoking-room--at that
moment unoccupied--he allowed himself to be closely questioned regarding
the general and his stepdaughter, as well as the man who had that day
been their guest. The stranger was a man of quick actions, and his
inquiries were sharp and to the point.

"You say that Mr. Fetherston met the young lady outside after luncheon,
and they had an argument in secret, eh?" asked the s