sibly find any fault with it?"

"It was apparently a quite harmless production," Major Thomson
confessed.

"Do you propose to open any more?"

Thomson shook his head.

"That is within our discretion, sir."

Mr. Gordon Jones struggled with his obvious annoyance.

"Look here," he said, with an attempt at good-humour, "you can at least
abandon the official attitude for a moment with me. Tell me why, of all
men in the world, you have chosen to suspect Sir Alfred Anselman?"

"I am sorry," Thomson replied stiffly, "but this is not a matter which
I can discuss in any other way except officially, and I do not recognise
you as having any special claims for information."

The Minister rose to his feet. Those few minutes marked to him an era in
his official life.

"You are adopting an attitude, sir," he said, "which, however much I
may admire it from one point of view, seems to me scarcely to take into
account the facts of the situation."

Thomson made no reply. He had risen to his feet. His manner clearly
indicated that he considered the interview at an end. Mr. Gordon Jones
choked down his displeasure.

"When you are wanting a civil job, Major Thomson," he concluded, "come
and give us a call. Good morning!"

CHAPTER XXIX

"A lady to see you, sir," Jarvis announced discreetly.

Granet turned quickly around in his chair. Almost instinctively he
pulled down the roll top of the desk before which he was seated. Then
he rose to his feet and held out his hand. He managed with an effort
to conceal the consternation which had succeeded his first impulse of
surprise.

"Miss Worth!" he exclaimed.

She came towards him confidently, her hands outstretched, slim, dressed
in sober black, her cheeks as pale as ever, her eyes a little more
brilliant. She threw her muff into a chair and a moment afterwards sank
into it herself.

"You have been expecting me?" she asked eagerly.

Granet was a little taken aback.

"I have been hoping to hear from you," he said. "You told me, if you
remember, not to write."

"It was better not," she assented. "Even after you left I had a great
deal of trouble. That odious man, Major Thomson, put me through a
regular cross-examination again, and I had to tell him at last--"

"What?" Granet exclaimed anxiously.

"That we were engaged to be married," she confessed. "There was really
no other way out of it."

"That we were engaged," Granet repeated blankly.

She nodded.

"He pressed