ered how those same arms had been
clasped round his own stiff and unbending neck. And sometimes he found
the thought distracted his attention from important matters.

It was about the middle of February when he received one morning a letter
from Nancy Almar. He knew _her_ handwriting. She was always sending him
little notes of one kind or another. This one was very brief.

"Clever mouse! So it knew a way to get out all the time!"

All day he speculated on the meaning of this strange message. Had Nancy
discovered some proof of the nature of his engagement? Had Christine been
moved by pity to tell Hickson the truth? On the whole he inclined to
think that this was the explanation.

The next day he knew he had been mistaken. He had a letter from Laura
Ussher--not the first in the series--urging him to come back at once.

"Max," she wrote, with a haste that made her almost indecipherable, "you
must come. What are you dreaming of--to leave a proud, beautiful,
impressionable creature like Christine the prey to so finished a villain
as Linburne? You are not so ignorant of the ways of the world as not to
know his intentions. Most people are saying you deserve everything that
is happening to you. I try to explain, but I know you saw enough while
you were here to be put upon your guard. Why don't you come? I must warn
you that if you do not come at once you need not come at all."

Riatt had just come in; it was late in the afternoon. The letters were
lying on his writing table; and as he finished this one, he raised his
eyes and looked at Christine's picture.

He did not believe Laura's over-wrought picture. Christine was no fool,
Linburne no villain. There was probably a little flirtation, and a good
deal of gossip. But that would all be put a stop to by the announcement
of Christine's engagement to Hickson. He did not even feel annoyed at his
cousin's suggestion that he did not know his way about the world. He knew
it rather better than she did, he fancied.

And having so disposed of his mail, he took up the evening paper which
lay beneath it, and read the first headline:

Mrs. Lee Linburne to seek divorce: Wife of well-known multimillionaire
now at Reno--

As he read this a blind rage swept over Riatt. He did not stop to inquire
why if he were willing to give Christine up to Hickson he was infuriated
at the idea of Linburne's marrying her; nor why, as he had allowed
himself to be made use of, he was angry to find that