ving Esther by the fire.

Her thoughts were a little confused. What had he been going to say,
she wondered. It seemed hardly possible that she had really had that
little glimpse of the other Micky whom she had never seen before; the
Micky who was not at all a man about town, but just an ordinary person
who thought it must be fine to have a home in the country and lots of
roses and a little son of his own.

The two men behind her were talking together; one of them was laughing
a good deal in a sneering way.

"She must be a fool, you know," he said drily. "I'm surprised at any
woman being caught like that. It was only her money he was after, of
course."

"I've never seen her myself," the other said disinterestedly--he
sounded rather bored--"and I only know him slightly. You met them in
Paris, you say?"

"Yes--last week." There was the sound of a match being struck and a
little pause while he puffed at a cigarette.

Esther turned in her chair; it was odd how the mention of Paris always
seemed to grip her heart. She looked at the two men, but they were
both strangers to her.

"Perhaps he won't really marry her," the elder one said yawning.
"There's many a slip you know, and from what I know of Raymond
Ashton----" He shrugged his shoulders eloquently.

The girl by the fire sat very still. She was staring at the two men
with piteous grey eyes; she felt as if all the blood in her body had
ebbed to her heart, where it was hammering enough to kill her.

Like some one in a dream she heard the laugh the other man gave----

"Not marry her! My dear boy, he must! It's his last chance, and he
knows it! He's up to his neck in debt and borrowed money. As a matter
of fact, I shouldn't be at all surprised if Tubby Clare's little widow
hasn't already changed her name for Raymond Ashton's."

CHAPTER XXV

Outside in the road Micky suddenly started up the engine of his car.
The dull throb, throb, came faintly to Esther as she sat there as
motionless as if she had been carved in stone.

The little vibrant noise sounded like the beating of some one's heart,
she thought dully; she found herself listening to it subconsciously.

The two men behind her had moved out to the doorway; she could still
hear them talking and laughing together. Something within her urged
her to get up and follow them to tell them that she had heard what
they said, to tell them that it was all a lie--a shameful lie. But she
could not move.

She