it would take a load off my mind. I don't like these
affairs that have to be concluded at the last possible moment."

"Well," Tavernake agreed, "I must try what I can do, then. There is
nothing else fresh, I suppose?"

"Nothing," the solicitor answered. "Come back, if you can make any
definite arrangement, or telephone. The matter is really bothering me a
little. I don't want to have the other people slip in now."...

Tavernake, instead of obeying his first impulse and making his way
direct to the Milan Court, walked to the flat in Kingsway, climbed up
the stone steps, and asked for Beatrice. She met him at her own door,
fully dressed.

"My dear Leonard!" she exclaimed, in surprise. "What an early caller!"

"I want a few words with you," he said. "Can you spare me five minutes?"

"You must walk with me to the theatre," she replied, "I am just off to
rehearsal."

They descended the stairs together.

"I have something to tell you," Tavernake began, "something to tell you
which you won't like to hear."

"Something which I won't like to hear," she repeated, fearfully. "Go on,
Leonard. It can't be worse than it sounds."

"I don't know why I've come to tell you," he went on. "I never meant to.
It came into my mind all of a sudden and I felt that I must. It has to
do with your sister and the Marston Rise affair."

"My sister and the Marston Rise affair!" Beatrice exclaimed,
incredulously.

Then a sudden light broke in upon her. She stopped short and clutched at
his hand.

"You don't mean that it was Elizabeth who was going to find you the
money?" she cried.

"I do," he answered. "She offered it of her own accord. I do not know
why I talked to her of my own affairs, but she led me on to speak of
them. Your sister is a wonderful person," he continued, dropping his
voice. "I don't know why, but she made me talk as no one else has ever
made me talk before. I simply had to tell her things. Then, when I had
finished, she showed me her bankbooks and suggested that she should
invest some of her money in the Rise."

"But do you mean to tell me," Beatrice persisted, "that it is her money
upon which you are relying for this purchase?"

Tavernake nodded.

"You see," he explained, "Mr. Dowling dropped upon us before I was
prepared. As soon as he found out, he went to the owners of the estate
and made them a bid for it. The consequence was that they shortened my
option and gave me very little chance indeed to find the