future prima
donna killing a local millionaire! Monty Paliser murdered by the
Viscountess of Casa-Evora! And at the opera! If I had ever put anything
of the kind in my copy, reviewers would have indolently asked: "Why
doesn't this imbecile study life?"

Jones laughed. The enjoyment of one's own ideas--or of the absence of
them--is a literary trait. When Dumas wrote, he roared.

Here it is, then, Jones continued. If the police knew certain things
they would nab Lennox. If they knew others, they would nab Cassy Cara.
If they knew more, they would nab me. I should be held as a witness.
This is cheerful, particularly as my sole complicity in the matter has
been due to a desire to be of use. But that is just it. Through the
enigmatic laws of life, any kindness is repaid in pain.

Pleasurably, for a moment, he considered the altruism of that aphorism.
Then he got back at the murder which, he decided, must have been
premeditated by some one who knew where Paliser would be. That
conclusion reached, he groped for another. Lennox knew, but did Cassy
know, and, if she did, had she utilised the knowledge?

To decide the point he reviewed the visit of the previous evening.

Ostensibly Cassy's visit had been occasioned not by any wish to relate
what had happened to her, but to acquaint Lennox with the cause of what
had happened to him. In view of what had befallen her, the proceeding
was certainly considerate. In the misadventures of life, the individual
is usually so obsessed by his own troubles that they blind him to those
of another. But ostensibly Cassy had sunk her troubles and had pulled
them up, not to exhibit them, but to show Lennox the lay of the land as
it affected not her at all but him. The proceeding was certainly
considerate--unless it were astute, unless her object had been to employ
Lennox for the wreaking of her own revenge.

That was possible, but was it probable?

An ordinary young woman would have gone at it differently, gone at it
hammer and tongs. Cassy's methods were merely finer. That was the common
sense view. But was it psychology? The common sense view that is
applicable to the average individual is inapplicable to a problematic
nature and, consequently, not to Cassy, who must therefore have had
another incentive for her visit, an incentive stronger than the
primitive instinct for revenge.

But, Jones asked himself, what are the fundamental principles of human
activity? They are self-preservation