d it to my cigarette.

"How did you manage it?" I asked.

"Oh, it was easy enough. I asked Lord Lammersfield to bring him here
one day. You know what George is like; he would never refuse to do
anything a Cabinet Minister suggested. Of course he had no idea who I
was until he arrived."

"It must have been quite a pleasant surprise for him," I said grimly.
"Did he recognize you at once?"

Joyce shook her head. "He had only seen me at the trial, and I had my
hair down then. Besides, two years make a lot of difference."

"They've made a lot of difference in you," I said. "They've turned you
from a pretty child into a beautiful woman."

With a little low, contented laugh Joyce again laid her head on my
shoulder. "I think," she said, "that that's the only one of George's
opinions I'd like you to share."

There was a moment's silence. Then I gently twisted one of her loose
curls round my finger.

"My poor Joyce," I said, "you seem to have been wading in some
remarkably unpleasant waters for my sake."

She shivered slightly. "Oh, it was hateful in a way, but I didn't
care. I knew George was hiding something that might help to get you
out of prison, and what did my feelings matter compared with that!
Besides--" she smiled mockingly--"for all his cleverness and his
wickedness George is a fool--just the usual vain fool that most men
are about women. It's been easy enough to manage him."

"He knows who you are now, of course?" I said.

She nodded. "I told him. He would have been almost certain to find
out, and then he would probably have been suspicious. As it is he
thinks our meeting was just pure chance."

"But surely," I objected, "he must have guessed you were on my side?"

She gave a short, bitter laugh. "Yes," she said, "he guessed that all
right. It's what he calls 'a sacred bond between us.' There are times,
you know, when George is almost funny."

"There are times," I said, "when he must make Judas Iscariot feel
sick."

"I sometimes wonder why I haven't killed him," she went on slowly. "I
think I should have if he had ever tried to kiss me. As it is--"
she laughed again in the same way--"as it is we are becoming great
friends. He is taking me out to dinner at the Savoy tonight."

"But if he doesn't try to make love to you--" I began.

"Oh!" she said, with a little shrug of her shoulders, "that's coming.
At present he imagines that he is being clever and diplomatic. Also
there's a business side to the