's had fascinated her and she
stood as if rooted to the spot.

She knew her ears did not deceive her. She had been brought up all her
life in an atmosphere of racing. She knew almost as much about it as
Raffle himself. The thing was plain and a wave of shame and humiliation
rushed over the girl as she stood there drinking in every word.

She could not blind herself to the truth. She could not get away from
the fact that her father was a conscious participant in a disgraceful
action. It mattered little that her father was in Copley's hands, or
that Copley had suggested the whole thing. The shock was none the less
painful. It seemed incredible that a man in Sir George's position should
stoop so low as this. These plots had happened before and no one had
spoken of them with greater contempt than had Sir George. Now was he
self-confessed as a principal in one of the shadiest of them all.

May stole away. For a moment she had been on the point of an outburst.
But perhaps it would be better to wait and speak to her father quietly
later, to try to find some means of averting this dreadful dishonour.

"I cannot stay here," she murmured. "The atmosphere poisons me. I must
get away, I must get away."

CHAPTER XXXVI

FIELDEN INTERVENES

May went quietly back to the drawing-room. There was nothing in her face
to indicate what she was suffering. For a time she sat gazing into the
fire, watching Alice Carden who sat opposite her engrossed in a book. At
the end of half an hour May had made up her mind what to do, and when
Alice laid her volume aside, she began to speak.

"How long is your father likely to be away?" she asked.

"Oh, for two months, I suppose," Alice said. "But I may find him at home
when I go back next week."

"I hope not," May answered, "because I have a plan to suggest to you. I
wonder if you would mind my coming with you? I suppose you could get me
a bedroom in your house. I should like to pay for myself. Could it be
managed, do you think?"

"It would be delightful," Alice cried. "But why do you want to leave
this beautiful house? What will Sir George say when he hears of it?"

"He mustn't hear it," May whispered. "We have always been very good
friends, Alice, and you can help me now if you will. I am going to
confide in you and you must not whisper a word of it to a soul. So long
as your father is away I shall be safe with you, and as he may not be
back for some weeks I will have time to turn