nice operation.

'Is that the way you usually serve us?' pursued Camilla, with a strange
emphasis on the word 'us' which maddened him.

'The fact is, Miss Payne,' he said boldly, sitting down as soon as he
had invented the solution of the difficulty, 'you will not deny that
this afternoon and this evening you have been in a position of some
slight delicacy. What your relations are with Mr. Francis Tudor I have
never sought to inquire, but I have always doubted the bonâ fides of Mr.
Francis Tudor. And to-day I have simply--if I may say so--watched over
you. If my man has been clumsy, I beg your forgiveness. I beg you to
believe in my deep respect for you.'

The plain sincerity of his accent and of his gaze touched and convinced
her. She looked at her feet, white-shod on the crimson carpet.

'Ah!' she murmured, as if to herself, mournfully, 'why don't you ask me
how it is that I, to whom you pay thirty-six shillings a week, am
wearing these clothes? Surely you must think that an employé who--'

'At this hour you are not an employé,' he interrupted here. 'You visit
me of your own free will to demand an explanation of matters which are
quite foreign to our business relations. I give it you. Beyond that I
permit myself no thoughts except such as any man is entitled to
concerning any woman. You used the word "plot" when you came in. What
did you refer to? If Mr. Tudor has--' He could not proceed.

'As I left Mr. Tudor's flat a few minutes since,' said Camilla quietly,
producing a revolver from the folds of her cloak, 'I picked up this. It