A sudden silence fell. Juliet's cigarette remained poised in the act of
kindling, but no smoke came from her lips. She had the look of one who
listens with almost painful intentness.

The flame of the lighted match licked Saltash's fingers, and he dropped
it. "Pardon my clumsiness! Let's try again! So you know Yardley, do you?"
He flung the words at Dick. "Quite the coming man in his profession.
Rather a brute in some ways, cold-blooded as a fish and wily as a
serpent, but interesting--distinctly interesting. When did you meet him?"

"Early this year. I consulted him on a matter of business. I have no
private acquaintance with him." Dick was looking straight at Saltash with
a certain hardness of contempt in his face. "You evidently are on terms
of intimacy with him."

"Oh, quite!" said Saltash readily. "He knows me--almost as well as you
do. And I know him--even better. I was saying to _Juliette_ just now
that I believe he shares the general impression that I have got Lady Jo
Farringmore somewhere up my sleeve. She did the rabbit trick, you know,
a week or two before the wedding, and because I was to have been the
best man I somehow got the blame. Wonder if he'd have blamed you if
you'd been there!"

Dick stiffened. "I think not," he said.

"Not disreputable enough?" laughed Saltash.

"Not nearly," said Juliet, coming out of her silence. "Dick has rather
strong opinions on this subject, Charles, so please don't be flippant