you, and you ventured to offer belated aid to the woman who bears your
name, I forbid it--I do not permit you the privilege. Except that she
retains your name--and the moment you attempt to rob her of that I shall
destroy you!--except for that, you have no further relations with
her--nothing to do or undo; no voice as to the disposal of what remains
of her; no power, no will, no influence in her fate. _I_ supplant you; I
take my own again; I reassume a responsibility temporarily taken from
me. And _now_, I think, you understand!"

He gave him one level and deadly stare; then his pallid features
relaxed, he slowly walked past Ruthven, grave, preoccupied; unlocked the
door, and passed out.

* * * * *

His lodgings were not imposing in their furnishings or dimensions--a
very small bedroom in the neighbourhood of Sixth Avenue and Washington
Square--but the heavy and increasing drain on his resources permitted
nothing better now; and what with settling Gerald's complications and
providing two nurses and a private suite at Clifton for Alixe Ruthven,
he had been obliged to sell a number of securities, which reduced his
income to a figure too absurd to worry over.

However, the Government had at last signified its intention of testing
his invention--Chaosite--and there was that chance for better things in
prospect. Also, in time, Gerald would probably be able to return
something of the loans made. But these things did not alleviate present
stringent conditions, nor were they likely to for a long while; and
Selwyn, tired and perplexed, mounted the stairs of his lodging-house and
laid his overcoat on the iron bed, and, divesting himself of the
garments of ceremony as a matter of economy, pulled on an old tweed
shooting-jacket and trousers.

Then, lighting his pipe--cigars being now on the expensive and forbidden
list--he drew a chair to his table and sat down, resting his worn face
between both hands. Truly the world was not going very well with him in
these days.

For some time, now, it had been his custom to face his difficulties here
in the silence of his little bedroom, seated alone at his table, pipe
gripped between his firm teeth, his strong hands framing his face. Here
he would sit for hours, the long day ended, staring steadily at the
blank wall, the gas-jet flickering overhead; and here, slowly,
painfully, with doubt and hesitation, out of the moral confusion in his
weary mind he evo