onions during the
evening, there was nothing in the manner of the master to denote whether
he was satisfied or not.

"Thank you, Sinnett. Take care that he does not go away without my
seeing him," was all that Mr. Travers Nugent vouchsafed in reply.

CHAPTER V

UNDER THE SEARCHLIGHT

"So that is Nugent, the London chap who lives at The Hut?" said
Lieutenant Beauchamp, when the car had flashed past. "Why do you
accentuate the information by making such disgustingly ugly faces,
Pussy?"

Miss Enid Mallory tossed her dainty head in mock indignation. "You are
perfectly horrid, Mr. Beauchamp," she snapped at him. "As if I could
make an ugly face if I tried ever so. And I won't have you calling me
Pussy--now that I'm grown up."

"Grown up, is it, the little spitfire?" grinned the young sailor. "And I
am to be Mr. Beauchamp, am I? Well, we used to be Reggie and Pussy when
I was at home last, and, whatever you may do, the force of habit will be
too strong for me. Even if I try to conquer it, which I shan't."

"That was three years ago, before you went to China," retorted Enid with
dignity.

"What's the difference? We're neither of us very old yet, though I'm not
sure I didn't like you better with a pigtail down your back than with
all that crinkly bulge round your ears. However, to be serious, and
stick to our muttons--what's the matter with Nugent?"

"Father doesn't like him," replied Enid, still inclined to ride the high
horse.

"I know that Mr. Mallory doesn't like him, but why not?" persisted
Reggie. "I have the greatest regard for your father's judgment in all
things. He is invariably right in his conclusions, but he is so jolly
reticent as to how he arrives at them. I saw in the club this morning,
when Nugent's name cropped up, that he didn't cotton to the johnny, but
he refused to be drawn on the subject."

Enid was mollified at last, as she always was by any tribute to the
acumen of the parent whom she adored.

"I don't know his reason," she said, as they turned to retrace their
steps along the parade. "But father, till he retired, was at the Foreign
Office, as you are aware, and in the course of his duties he learned all
sorts of secrets and came in contact with all sorts of shady men. I
fancy his antipathy dates back to something that occurred during his
official career, but you might as well try to open an oyster with your
fingers as induce him to divulge what he knows."

Reggie Beauchamp nod