f how his coming had changed the current of Stratton's
career.

"Sit down, old fellow," said Stratton cheerfully, and he opened the
closet by the fireplace to reach down a box of cigars, which he handed
to Guest, and then took one himself.

"Now for it," thought Guest as Stratton sat back, looking pale still and
thin from his illness; but he only went on smoking, apparently waiting
for his friend to speak.

"And I don't know what to say," thought Guest.

He was relieved from his embarrassment at last by Stratton beginning to
talk about one of the current topics of the day, and he left the
chambers at last without there having been the slightest reference to
the trial.

Guest found his way to Bourne Square the next afternoon, and was
startled to find all the shutters closed and the blinds drawn in the
upper rooms.

"Out of town" seemed written plainly all over the house, for that
nothing serious was the matter was evident from a friendly chat going on
at the area gate between two maids, who had dispensed with the hated
headgear of slavery--caps--and were laughing with a rustic looking young
milkman.

Guest took a cab and drove to Miss Jerrold's, in Bayswater, to find that
lady at home and ready to welcome him.

"Gone, my dear boy," she said. "Gone to Rome first, and the best thing
too. Ugh! I never liked that man, Percy Guest. He looked like silver,
but I could feel that he was only electro-plate. Well, poor Myra had a
terrible escape. It was, of course, her money, and he looked for some
of mine."

"But when are they coming back, Miss Jerrold?"

"Oh, not for a long time, I hope. It will be the best thing in the
world for poor Myra, and I have been thinking that I shall go and join
them soon. Not till they have all had time to calm down. There is
nothing to mind till then."

She said these last words so meaningly that Guest gave her an inquiring
look, and the old lady smiled.

"You want to know why I said that," she said, "Well, I'll tell you,
Percy Guest. Old women can speak pretty plainly, and I can trust you to
be discreet. The fact is, my brother is one of the best men that ever
breathed, and at sea he had few officers who were his equal, but on
shore he is one of those men whom any clever, designing scoundrel could
impose upon, and if I don't go to them and play the dragon of
watchfulness we shall be having a foreign count without a penny, or some
other dreadful swindler, hoodwinking him t