succeed. You tell me in one breath that you care for a woman for the first
time in your life, and in the next you speak of using her as your tool!"

"You perhaps find that incomprehensible," he observed. "I do not blame you.
At present, however, I have only one object in life, and that is to succeed
in the business I have on hand. Whatever I may find it necessary to do to
attain my ends, I shall do."

She had gone a little pale, and her white teeth were holding down her full
under lip.

"Buy me another cocktail," she demanded.

He obeyed, and she drank it at a gulp.

"So you are not going to be nice to me?" she asked in a low tone.

"That depends upon what you call nice," he answered. "I am rather up
against a blank wall. Even if I succeed, I remain in this country at very
considerable personal danger. I am not sure that even for your sake, Nora,
it is well for you to associate with me. Why not go home? You'll find some
of your people still there--and an old sweetheart or two, very likely."

"It isn't a very warm welcome," she remarked, a little wistfully.

"You have taken me by surprise," he reminded her. "I had not the slightest
idea of your coming."

"I know that," she sighed. "I suppose I ought not to have hoped for
anything more. You've never been any different to me than to any of the