n borrowed for the occasion.

He came forward noiselessly, his footsteps deadened in the soft pile of
the Brussels carpet. She regarded his approach with cold, impassive
demeanor, nodding slightly as he paused near the carved rosewood table
above which hung an exquisitely wrought silver lamp, suspended by four
silver chains from the ceiling.

"Mr. Herbert Whitmore?" she asked, not without trace of anxiety in her
voice.

He observed that her skin had a warm and pearly tone, that her abundant
hair was of a dark reddish tinge, and that her eyes, of turquoise blue,
gleamed with a strange, impenetrable hue. He was still gazing vacantly
at her, but his mind was working furiously, striving to answer the
harrowing questions that presented themselves in tumultuous succession
before it.

Who was she? What motive prompted this visit at ten in the evening? Did
she come to plead a financial matter?--or was she here for purposes of
blackmail? Did she have knowledge of his incriminating conduct, and was
she sent to ensnare him into further complications? Above all, what
attitude should he adopt toward her?

"What can I do for you?" he inquired in a tone frigidly polite, yet not
devoid of an anxious note.

They regarded each other a moment.

"I hardly know how to begin," she said, lowering her eyes.

He did not credit her hesitancy. It was a deceit, he felt, a bit of
theatricalism,--the simulated modesty of a woman of experience.

"Begin by being seated," he said rather sharply, as if he meant to
convey that he penetrated her sham diffidence.

Ignoring his brusqueness, she dropped into one of the ornate rosewood
chairs near the table.

"It is such a delicate matter on which I have come," she began
timorously, eying him for a sign of encouragement. "Now that I am here I
wish I hadn't come--it's so difficult for me to begin."

His keen gray eyes narrowed on her, but she read no encouragement in his
glance. He had regained control of himself and assumed a non-committal
attitude, as of one ready to listen, but indifferent as to whether she
proceeded or withdrew.

"You haven't revealed the purpose of your visit as yet," he said,
crossing his legs. "If you regret having come, you are at liberty to go
without further explanation."

He hurled it at her as a challenge, but with a positive feeling that it
would not be accepted.

"I have come to warn you," she said with sudden resolution.

"To warn me of what?" His brow knitt