t he said: 'I suppose you have been told of
the--the theatricals? I--I couldn't very well help it, you know. I
hope you don't mind?'

'Mind!' said Vincent. 'Why should I mind? What is it to me--now? I
thought that was finally settled at Laufingen.'

'I felt I must explain it, that's all,' said Mark, 'and--and I've a
great deal to bear just now, Holroyd. Life isn't all roses with me, I
assure you. If you could remember that now and then, you might think
less hardly of me!'

'I will try,' Vincent had said, and was about to say more, when Mabel
returned alone. Her eyes were brilliant with anger. Children can
occasionally put the feats of the best constructed phonograph
completely in the shade; everything that Caffyn had told her about
that unfortunate burnt letter Dolly had just reproduced with absolute
fidelity.

'I know what happened to your letter now, Vincent,' Mabel said. 'Mark,
you never would see anything so very bad in the trick Harold played
Dolly about that wretched stamp--see if this doesn't alter your
opinion.' And she told them the whole story, as it has been already
described, except that the motives for so much chicanery were
necessarily dark to her. A little comparison of dates made it clear
beyond a doubt that an envelope with the Ceylon stamp had been burnt
just when Vincent's letter should in the ordinary course have arrived.

'And Dolly says he told her himself it _was_ your letter!' concluded
Mabel.

'Ah,' said Vincent, 'not that that proves it. But I think this time he
has spoken truth; only _why_ has he done all this? Why suppress my
letter and turn Dolly against me?'

'Malice and spite, I suppose,' said Mabel. 'He has some grudge against
you, probably; but go up now, Vincent, and comfort Dolly--you'll find
her in my little writing-room, quite broken-hearted at the idea that
you should be angry with her.'

Vincent went up at once, and was soon able to regain Dolly's complete
confidence. When he had gone, Mabel said to Mark: 'Harold has been
here very often lately, dear. I tried to think better of him when I
saw you wished it--but I can't go on after this, you see that
yourself, don't you?'

Mark was angry himself at what he had heard. Now he knew how Harold
had contrived to get rid of Dolly that afternoon in South Audley
Street, it made him hot and ashamed to think that he had profited by
such a device. He certainly had, from motives he did not care to
analyse himself, persuaded Mabel to