call a conscience;
that I know. But none the less I have a conscience--a conscience about
the things which really matter, at all events to me. There is a flaw in
that new invention. It can be improved; I know that. But as yet I do
not see how, and--I cannot help it--I must get it right; I cannot let
it go imperfect when I know that it's imperfect, when I know that it
can be improved, when I am sure that I shall sooner or later hit upon
the needed improvement. That is what I mean when I say I have a
conscience."

Helena Vauquier smiled indulgently. Men were queer fish. Things which
were really of no account troubled and perplexed them and gave them
sleepless nights. But it was not for her to object, since it was one of
these queer anomalies which was giving her her chance.

"And the people are finding out that you have sold your rights twice
over," she said sympathetically. "That is a pity, monsieur."

"They know," he answered; "those in England know."

"And they are very angry?"

"They threaten me," said Wethermill. "They give me a month to restore
the money. Otherwise there will be disgrace, imprisonment, penal
servitude."

Helene Vauquier walked calmly on. No sign of the intense joy which she
felt was visible in her face, and only a trace of it in her voice.

"Monsieur will, perhaps, meet me tomorrow in Geneva," she said. And she
named a small cafe in a back street. "I can get a holiday for the
afternoon." And as they were near to the villa and the lights, she
walked on ahead.

Wethermill loitered behind. He had tried his luck at the tables and had
failed. And--and--he must have the money.

He travelled, accordingly, the next day to Geneva, and was there
presented to Adele Tace and Hippolyte.

"They are trusted friends of mine," said Helene Vauquier to Wethermill,
who was not inspired to confidence by the sight of the young man with
the big ears and the plastered hair. As a matter of fact, she had never
met them before they came this year to Aix.

The Tace family, which consisted of Adele and her husband and Jeanne,
her mother, were practised criminals. They had taken the house in
Geneva deliberately in order to carry out some robberies from the great
villas on the lake-side. But they had not been fortunate; and a
description of Mme. Dauvray's jewellery in the woman's column of a
Geneva newspaper had drawn Adele Tace over to Aix. She had set about
the task of seducing Mme. Dauvray's maid, and found a ma