l, a man never knows much about a
woman anyway, and what little he learns is acquired by a process of
rejection after marriage."

"May I ask what you mean?"

"Judging from your history and apparent age, Mr. Curtis, I take it you
have not had time to go fooling about after girls?"

"You are certainly right in that respect."

"Naturally, or you wouldn't be so ignorant concerning the dear
creatures. You are to be congratulated, 'pon my soul. You will have
the rare experience of constructing a divinity out of a wife, whereas
the average man begins by choosing a divinity and finds he has only
secured a wife."

Curtis laughed, but met the detective's penetrating gaze frankly.

"Your bitter philosophy may be sound, Mr. Clancy," he said, "but it is
built on a false premiss. My marriage is only a matter of form. It
may be legal--indeed, I believe it is--but there can be no dispute as
to the nature of the bond between Lady Hermione and myself. She
regards me as a husband in name only, and will dissolve the tie at her
own convenience."

"You'll place no obstacles in her way?"

"None."

"Quite sure?"

"Absolutely."

Clancy giggled, as though he were a comedian who had scored a point
with his audience.

"Then you're married for keeps," he announced, with the grin of a man
who has solved a humorous riddle. "By refusing to thwart the lady you
throw away your last slender chance of freedom, and you will find her
waiting at the gate of the State Penitentiary when you come out. By
Jove, you've been pretty rapid, though. No wonder people say the East
is waking up. Are there many more like you in China?"

Curtis was not altogether pleased by this banter, nor did he trouble to
conceal his opinion that the New York Detective Bureau was treating a
grave crime with scandalous levity.

"Whether Lady Hermione married me or Jean de Courtois is a rather
immaterial side issue," he said, somewhat emphatically. "From what
little I can grasp of a curiously involved affair, it seems to me that
there are weightier interests than ours at stake. And, if I may
venture to differ from you, a lot of things may happen before I see the
inside of a prison."

"After your meteoric career during the past few hours I am inclined to
agree with that last remark," and Clancy's tone became so serious that
Devar laughed outright. "Don't misunderstand me, Mr. Curtis. I am
lost in admiration of your nerve, but you have told me just what I