ots of it, don't you?" he said in a low, decisive
voice.

"I refuse, I tell you!" cried Sir Hugh angrily.

"Hush! Someone may overhear," the doctor said. "Is Enid at home?"

"Yes."

"I saw her last night, as you wished. She is not well. Her nerves are
still in an extremely weak state," Weirmarsh said, in order to change the
topic of conversation. "I think you should send her abroad out of the
way--to the South somewhere."

"So she told me. I shall try and get Mrs. Caldwell to take her to
Sicily--if you consider the air would be beneficial."

"Excellent--Palermo or Taormina--send the girl there as soon as ever you
can. She seems unstrung, and may get worse; a change will certainly do
her good," replied the man whose craft and cunning were unequalled. "I
know," he added reflectively, "that Enid dislikes me--why, I can never
make out."

"Instinct, I suppose, Weirmarsh," was the old man's reply. "She suspects
that you hold me in your power, as you undoubtedly do."

"Now that is really a most silly idea of yours, Sir Hugh. Do get rid of
it. Such a thought pains me to a great degree," declared the crafty-eyed
man. "For these past years I have provided you with a good income,
enabling you to keep up your position in the world, instead of--well,
perhaps shivering on the Embankment at night and partaking of the
hospitality of the charitably disposed. Yet you upbraid me as though I
had treated you shabbily!" He spoke with an irritating air of
superiority, for he knew that this man who occupied such a high position,
who was an intimate friend and confidant of the Minister of War, and
universally respected throughout the country, was but a tool in his
unscrupulous hands.

"You ask me too much," exclaimed the grey-moustached officer in a hard,
low voice.

"The request does not emanate from me," was the doctor's reply; "I am
but the mouthpiece."

"Yes, the mouthpiece--but the eyes and ears also, Weirmarsh," replied Sir
Hugh. "You bought me, body and soul, for a wage of five thousand pounds a
year----"

"The salary of one of His Majesty's Ministers," interrupted the doctor.
"It has been paid you with regularity, together with certain extras. When
you have wished for a loan of five hundred or so, I have never refused
it."

"I quite admit that; but you've always received a _quid pro quo_," the
general snapped. "Look at the thousands upon thousands I put through for
you!"

"The whole transaction has from the beginning