show him the way," murmured Shelton inaudibly, as Vermont departed, with
the bland smile still hovering round his thin lips.




CHAPTER II


Outside the club door, Vermont's motor was drawn up at the side waiting
for him. He looked at his watch, and was surprised at the lateness of
the hour. Stepping hastily into the vehicle, he held up two fingers to
the chauffeur, who apparently needed no other instructions; for the car
glided off, and Vermont, as he passed the club, looked up at the windows
with an ugly smile.

As Lord Standon had said, few knew his origin or his business; but, in
reality, his antecedents were of a very ordinary nature. He was the son
of a solicitor who had lived with but one object in his sordid life,
namely, the desire to make his son a man of position with the power to
mix as an equal among that portion of society which only came to Malcolm
Vermont when it wanted its scandals glossed over, or to obtain money.
Ill-natured people were apt to hint that he had amassed his wealth by
means of usury and the taking up of shady cases. At any rate, he made
sufficient to bring up his son in luxury and send him to Oxford, where
Jasper had first come in contact with Adrien Leroy. At the death of his
father, Vermont found himself possessed of an income of a thousand a
year, which enabled him to become a member of Adrien's set,
notwithstanding that the amount was a much smaller one than he had been
led to expect, and, in his opinion, savoured almost of aristocratic