keep up the pleasant fiction about the money without her
ever knowing that I told her a deliberate lie just now. But
--what's in the future? Here's one man to be dismissed
already, and there'll be others, and one of them will be the
favoured man. That man will have to be told! And--so will
she, then. And--my God! she doesn't see, and mustn't see,
that I'm madly in love with her myself! She's no idea of it
--and she shan't have; I must--must continue to be--only the
guardian!"

He laughed a little cynically as he laid his letters down on
his desk and proceeded to open them--in which occupation he
was presently interrupted by the opening of the side-door and
the entrance of Mr. Pemberton Bryce.




CHAPTER II

MAKING AN ENEMY


It was characteristic of Pemberton Bryce that he always walked
into a room as if its occupant were asleep and he was afraid
of waking him. He had a gentle step which was soft without
being stealthy, and quiet movements which brought him suddenly
to anybody's side before his presence was noticed. He was by
Ransford's desk ere Ransford knew he was in the surgery--and
Ransford's sudden realization of his presence roused a certain