e a little, "was a
highly privileged and very much valued member of our Intelligence
Department, until he resigned a few months ago. I think that if you
could spare an hour or two any time this evening, Dorminster, it would
interest you very much to know exactly the reason for Mr. Jesson's
resignation."

"I should be very pleased indeed," Nigel replied. "Won't you both come
and dine in Belgrave Square to-night? I was going to ask you, anyhow,
Chalmers. Naida Karetsky has promised to come, and my cousin will be
hostess."

"It will give me very great pleasure," Jesson acquiesced. "You will
understand," he added, "that the information which Mr. Chalmers has
just given you concerning myself is entirely confidential."

Nigel nodded.

"We three will have a little talk to ourselves afterwards," he
suggested. "At eight o'clock--Number 17, Belgrave Square."

Jesson strolled away after a little desultory conversation. Chalmers
looked after him thoughtfully.

"Harmless-looking chap, isn't he?" he observed. "Yet I'll let you in on
this, Dorminster: there isn't another living person who knows so much of
what is going on behind the scenes in Europe as that man."

"Why has he chucked his job, then?" Nigel enquired.

"He will tell you that to-night," was Chalmers' quiet reply.

CHAPTER VIII

"I don't think I shall marry you, after all," Maggie announced that
evening, as she stood looking at herself in one of the gilded mirrors
with which the drawing-room at Belgrave Square was adorned.

"Why not?" Nigel asked, with polite anxiety.

"You are exhibiting symptoms of infidelity," she declared. "Your
flirtation with Naida this afternoon was most pronounced, and you went
out of your way to ask her to dine to-night."

"I like that!" Nigel complained. "Supposing it were true, I should
simply be obeying orders. It was you who incited me to devote myself to
her."

"The sacrifices we women make for the good of our country," Maggie
sighed. "However, you needn't have taken me quite so literally. Do you
admire her very much, Nigel?"

He smiled. His manner, however, was not altogether free from
self-consciousness.

"Of course I do," he admitted. "She's a perfectly wonderful person,
isn't she? Let's get out of this Victorian environment," he added,
looking around the huge apartment with its formal arrangement of
furniture and its atmosphere of prim but faded elegance. "We'll go into
the smaller room and tell Brookes to br