e he knows all about Mr. Hamar--and the compact."

"He has told you?"

"I have gleaned it from what he has said in his delirium."

"Has he been as ill as that?"

"Yes, he has. He had a temperature of a hundred and four the day
before yesterday."

For a few moments there was silence. Then Lilian Rosenberg said, "Can
you believe what a man says in delirium?"

"In this instance I feel sure you can," Miss Templeton replied.

"Why should Miss Martin's engagement be of such interest to Mr.
Davenport?"

Miss Templeton thought for a moment. "Because," she said at last, "he
is in love with her."

"Are you sure of it?"

"Absolutely!"

"Do you think she cares for him, even as much as that?" and she
snapped her fingers.

"I think she may care for him a very great deal some day--she has
begun to care for him already!"

"But she would never dream of marrying any one as badly off as Mr.
Davenport. He is practically starving."

"He was--but he's not now. He's come into money." And she explained
about the fifty thousand pounds.

"I see!" Lilian Rosenberg said after a prolonged pause, "that accounts
for her having just begun to care for him. Supposing there was some
one who had been fond of him all along--in the days when he hadn't a
halfpenny to his name, and every one else shunned him!"

"I should feel very sorry for that person," Miss Templeton said, "but
setting aside the sacrifice of his happiness--it would be wrong for
him to marry her if his heart was fixed elsewhere."

"Which you say it is."

"Which I am sure it is!"

"Well, supposing it is--what does it concern me? Why tell me all
this?"

"Because it lies in your power to put an end to the Compact and bring
about the catastrophe the Unknown threatened."

"I think you credit me with rather too much. I do not quite see how I
can accomplish all this?"

"But I do," Miss Templeton said, briskly. "I believe I am right in
saying Mr. Kelson is in love with you--that you can make him do pretty
well anything you please. Well, all you have to do is to lead him on
to propose and insist on his marrying you at once--or at all events
before the expiration of the Compact. If you succeed in doing this the
Compact will be broken!"

"That may be," Lilian Rosenberg exclaimed, "but where, pray, should I
come in? Why on earth should I marry a man I don't care a snap for?"

"Why!" Miss Templeton replied, slowly, "why, because by marrying a man
you don't care a snap fo