"May I not be the judge of that?" he begged. "Giving depends upon the
recipient, you know. You have given me more happiness within this last
half-hour than I have had since we parted in France."

Some instinct of her younger days brought happiness into her laugh, a
provocative gleam into her soft eyes.

"You are very easily satisfied," she murmured.

He laughed back again, but though he opened his lips to speak, the words
remained unsaid. Something warned him that here was a woman passing
through something like a crisis in her life, and that a single false step
on his part might be fatal. He stood hat in hand and watched the taxicab
turn up Park Lane.




CHAPTER III


There was a little flutter of excitement in the offices of Messrs.
Kendrick, Stone, Morgan and Company when, at a few minutes after eleven
the following morning, Wingate descended from a taxicab, pushed open the
swing doors of the large general office and enquired for Mr. Kendrick.
Without a moment's delay he was shown into Roger Kendrick's private room,
but the little thrill caused by his entrance did not at once pass away.
It was like the visit of a general to Divisional Headquarters. Action of
some sort seemed to be in the air. Ideas of big dealings already loomed