in everything else the truth always pays the best. During the sixteen
years that I have devoted to business I have endeavoured to act
squarely and fairly with everyone with whom I have been brought in
contact, and I may say without conceit that I have earned a good name
in addition to the three hundred thousand pounds that I have been able
to save.

I have never got on particularly well with the other sex, partly, I
suppose, from my manners, which, to say the least, are not attractive,
and partly to the fact that up to the time I met Marie Dalmayne I have
never cared for a woman. I came across the girl that I have grown to
love so well in this fashion. I am interested in a West Australian mine
to the extent of about a hundred thousand pounds, and am one of the
three partners who control the concern. One of them is a member of the
great City house of Bleichopsheim, and the other is Mr. Ross, a wealthy
iron-master. It was at the latter's house in St. James's Square that I
met my fate.

I took Miss Dalmayne down to dinner, and I think that my heart went out
to her from the first. I found her clever and sensible, and with
apparently little of the frivolity which characterises most of the
young women with whom I have been brought in contact. Her conversation,
if not absolutely brilliant, was at any rate bright and amusing, and
possessed a considerable amount of shrewdness.

Miss Dalmayne was about twenty-three, tall and fair,' possessing a
perfect figure and the most beautiful and expressive hazel eyes. Her
hair was nut brown with a warm reddish sun-kissed glint, and her
features were regular and aristocratic. Her smile was delightful. In
short, I fell in love.