ht stood on the table at his elbow, and he
was absorbed in a book he had bought before leaving London. Stranleigh
was at peace with all the world, and his reading soothed a mind which he
never allowed to become perturbed if he could help it. He now thanked
his stars that he was sure of a week undisturbed by callers and free
from written requests. Just at this moment he was amazed to see the door
open, and a man enter without knock or other announcement. His first
thought was to wonder what had become of Ponderby--how had the stranger
eluded him? It was a ruddy-faced, burly individual who came in, and, as
he turned round to shut the door softly, Stranleigh saw that his thick
neck showed rolls of flesh beneath the hair. His lordship placed the
open book face downwards on the table, but otherwise made no motion.

"Lord Stranleigh, I presume?" said the stranger.

Stranleigh made no reply, but continued gazing at the intruder.

"I wish to have a few words with you, and considered it better to come
to your rooms than to accost you on deck. What I have to say is serious,
and outside we might have got into an altercation, which you would
regret."

"You need have no fear of any altercation with me," said Stranleigh.

"Well, at least you desire to avoid publicity, otherwise you would not
be travelling under an assumed name."

"I am not travelling under an assumed name."

The stout man waved his hand in deprecation of unnecessary talk.

"I will come to the point at once," he said, seating himself without any
invitation.

"I shall be obliged if you do so."

The new-comer's eyes narrowed, and a threatening expression overspread
his rather vicious face.

"I want to know, Lord Stranleigh, and I have a right to ask, why you
gave a hundred pounds to my wife."

"To your wife?" echoed Stranleigh in amazement.

"Yes. I have made a memorandum of the numbers, and here they are--two
fifty-pound notes. Bank of England. Do you deny having given them to
her?"

"I gave two fifty-pound notes to a young lady, whose name, I understood,
was Trevelyan--a name which I also bear. She informed me, and somehow I
believed her, that her purse containing steamship ticket and money, had
been lost or stolen."

A wry smile twisted the lips of the alleged husband.

"Oh, that's the story is it? Would you be surprised if the young lady in
question denied that _in toto_?"

"I should not be astonished at anything," replied his lordship, "if you