"If you have an explanation, Godfrey," I protested, "for heaven's
sake tell me! Don't keep me in the maze an instant longer than is
necessary. I've been thinking about it till my brain feels like a
snarl of tangled thread. Do you mean to say you know what it is all
about?"

"'Know' is perhaps a little strong. There isn't much in this world
that we really know. Suppose we say that I strongly suspect." He
paused a moment, his eyes on the ceiling. "You know you've accused me
of romancing sometimes, Lester--the other evening, for instance; yet
that romance has come true."

"I take it all back," I said, meekly.

"There's another thing these talks do," continued Godfrey, going off
rather at a tangent, "and that is to clarify my ideas. You don't know
how it helps me to state my case to you and to try to answer your
objections. Your being a lawyer makes you unusually quick to see
objections, and a lawyer is always harder to convince of a thing than
the ordinary man. You are accustomed to weighing evidence; and so I
never allow myself to be convinced of a theory until I have convinced
you. Not always, even then," he added, with a smile.

"Well, I'm glad I'm of some use," I said, "if it is only as a sort of
file for you to sharpen your wits on. So please go ahead and romance
some more. Tell me first how you and Simmonds came to be following
Armand."

"Simply because I had found out he wasn't Armand. Felix Armand is in