to convince this beautiful creature
that she might, indeed, begin enduring "for the sake of others" by
expressing her determination to give the police all possible assistance.

"There is no urgency for a few minutes," was the best reply he could
frame on the spur of the moment. "Shall I leave you alone for a little
while? Perhaps you would like to consult your maid? Indeed, her
services might meet all the requirements of the case. The police would
be the first to recognize that a woman who had lost her affianced
husband under such terrible----"

"Ah, but that is the wretched difficulty I am in. Poor Monsieur de
Courtois was nothing to me."

"Nothing to you!"

Probably Curtis's brain did not reel, but it assuredly felt like
reeling, and it is quite certain that his eyes blazed down on the
half-hysterical girl with an intensity that magnetized her into a
broken excuse.

"It is--quite--true," she stammered, with the diffidence of a child
explaining some lapse which, it was hoped, might not be regarded as a
real fault. "I never dreamed of marriage--in the sense--that people
mean--when they intend to live happily together. . . . Monsieur de
Courtois was to be my husband--only in name. I--I paid him for
that. . . . I--I gave him a thousand dollars--and--and---- Don't look
at me in that way or I shall scream! . . . I have done nothing
wrong. . . . I was trying to protect myself. . . . Oh, if you are a
man you will want to help me, rather than push me into the living tomb
which threatens to engulf me before to-morrow morning!"

Even in their agitation, they both heard the jar of a bell. The girl
sprang upright. There was something splendid in her courage, in the
way she threw back her proud head and clenched her tiny hands.

"Ah me!" she sighed. "Perhaps it is already too late!"

CHAPTER III

EIGHT-THIRTY

They stood in silence, listening to the footsteps of Marcelle on the
parquet floor of the passage. The outer door was opened, and a murmur
of voices reached them indistinctly.

"I have had the honor of knowing you not much longer than ten minutes,
Miss Grandison," said Curtis, and the strong, vibrant note in his voice
might well have won any woman's confidence, "but if you feel that you
can trust me, and my help is of value, please command me, that is, if
your enemies are men."

She rewarded him with one swift look of gratitude.

"If it is my father, both you and I are powerless," she