"And you are the only compensation for the mess, Mr. Harleston!" she
smiled.

She said it so earnestly Harleston was almost persuaded that she meant
it--though he replied with a shrug and a sceptical laugh.

"But the woman was long in returning," Mrs. Clephane resumed; "and after
a while I put out the light, and going to the window raised the shade.
The cab was no longer before the house; it had moved a little distance
to the left, and the horse was lying down in the shafts. As I was
debating whether to risk the jump from the window, a man came down the
street and halted at the cab.--That man was you, Mr. Harleston. The rest
of the tale you know much better than I--and the material portion you
are to tell me, or rather to give me."

"How did you know the man at the cab was I? You didn't recognize me in
the corridor, this afternoon."

"Oh, yes I did--but I waited to see if you would follow me, or would go
up to the other woman in black and roses."

"I never was in doubt!" Harleston laughed. "I told you, on the
telephone, that I could pick you out in a crowd; after a glimpse of you,
I could--" he ended with a gesture.

"Still pick me out," she supplied. "Well, the important thing is that
you _did_ pick me out--and that you're a gentleman. Also you forget that
your picture has been pretty prominent lately, on account of the Du
Portal affair; and besides you've been pointed out to me a number of