"We know each other fairly well."

"What an unfortunate coincidence that she should be lunching here to-day, of all days."

"Why?" asked Judge.

"Miss Loment rather wished to keep her visit private, I fancy. I'm afraid she is inclined to regard it in the light of an escapade."

"Is that really so, Miss Loment?"

"Naturally I have appearances to consider. However, it's no good crying over spilt milk if anyone splits, it won't be Louie."

"Quite sure?" asked Mrs. Richborough, with a smile which was almost a sneer.

"I hope I can trust my own friends to behave with common decency."

Judge looked perplexed. "I hope you're not here against your will?"

"Why should I come, if I hadn't wanted to? I'm a free agent."

"Can't you grasp, Mr. Judge? La tante terrible! Miss Loment is experiencing the fearful joy of being out of school."

"Clever, but unsound, Mrs. Richborough. I was thinking more of public opinion."

"You think you are acting unwisely?" asked Judge, wrinkling his forehead.

"Oh, I know if there's any doubt about it the judgement won't be given in my favour. Lunching in a strange town, with quite unknown people, strikes me as being exactly calculated t lead to a lot of questions being asked. And we know that if a question is uncharitable, the answer to it won't be otherwise. Even if I were to plead altruistic motives, I'm afraid it wouldn't be of any avail."

"Does that imply you're here out of kindness?"

"Perhaps it comes to that in the end. The pleasure of a chaperon is always rather impersonal."

"Of a chaperon, Miss Loment?

"Didn't you know? I'm chaperoning Mrs. Richborough. She made such a strong point of it that really I hadn't the heart to refuse. Otherwise, I didn't mean to come."

Judge's expression was one of absolute amazement.

"Here is some misunderstanding, evidently. Mrs. Richborough was kind enough to offer herself as chaperon to you, on learning that you were so anxious to see the house once more…"

The widow actually coloured, beneath her paint and powder. "Really, I'll never equivocate again as long as I live! Miss Loment seemed so unwilling to join us that there was positively nothing left to do except appeal to her sympathy…I feel an absolute criminal."

"Oh, it's funny, Mrs. Richborough!" said Isbel. "Don't start apologising or you'll spoil the joke."

"But surely, Miss Loment," said Judge, "you didn't for one minute imagine that I desired to fetch you all the way from Brighton merely to act as a companion to another lady? I must have made that clear in my letter."

"Oh, it's a mix-up, and that's all about it. Mrs. Richborough was obliging me, and I was under the impression that I was obliging her. When women start conferring favours on one another there's no end to the complications. To show our thorough disinterestedness, we stick at nothing."

"It must certainly have been a most confusing situation for both of you," remarked Judge, smiling at last "However, the main point is we've got you here, by fair means or foul; and I don't think you need be in the least afraid of tittle-tattle, as we are both highly respectable people. If might suggest a compromise, you had better terminate your dispute of generosity by agreeing to chaperon each other, since in the eyes of the world I am such a dangerous person.?

"Then what are we waiting for?" demanded Isbel cheerfully. "Lunch seems to be at an end."

They stayed for coffee, however, and then, while Judge went outside to prepare the car, Mrs. Richborough led the somewhat unwilling girl upstairs to her room, where for five unpleasant minutes she was forced to inhale an atmosphere almost nauseous with feminine perfume, while witnessing the elder woman's final applications of paint, powder, and salve. Refusing the use of these materials for herself, at the end ot that time she broke away, and went downstairs alone.

She found Judge promenading before the hotel. A rather embarrassed discussion of the weather began.

"Thanks for the letter!" said Isbel, quietly and suddenly.

"It was my hairpin."

"I decided as much; there's no one else it could have belonged to."

"Won't you tell me what was in that note you destroyed?"

"I can't-I can't. Say no more about it."

"Whose idea really was it, that I should come over to-day-yours or hers?"

"Mine, Miss Loment. She has nothing at all to do with the business. I am simply bringing her because you can't go with me alone."

"I'd rather it were anyone else. Who is she? Do you know anything about her?"

"Nothing, I fear, except that she's quite reputable…Don't you like her, then?"

"Not particularly-but we won't pay her the honour of talking about her…What are we to do to-day?

"I thought we could make a desperate effort to get this mystery cleared up, once for all…I fear we must both recognise that things can't go on in the way they're doing. It's unfair to both of us."

Isbel gave him a half-frightened glance. "What's to prevent us from finishing now? Why need we take a still deeper plunge-for that's what it amounts to…or does it? What do you think-shall we really ever get any satisfaction? I'm fearfully uncertain…"

"You place a great responsibility on my shoulders, Miss Loment…To be quite truthful, I feel I have no right to ask you to proceed further. I would not have written you as I did, except that I somehow had it firmly wedged in my head that the uncertainty was causing you great uneasiness…"

"It's half-killing me…We'll go…But what are we to do with that woman when we get there?"

"It hasn't occurred to me. It may be awkward, I can see."

"If we don't hurry up and plan something, we shall have her trailing after us all the time."

"Something may turn up, to give us our chance."

"That's most unlikely-nothing ever turns up when you want it to. We'd better contrive something after this style: while we are all three going over the house together, I'll accidentally become separated from you, and you must leave her while you hunt for me. We both know our respective stations."

"But if she insists on accompanying me…?"

"OH, she won't keep it up; she'll soon tire of tramping up and down stairs, and along interminable corridors, in her high-heeled boots-searching for a girl she's utterly callous about. Besides, she has a weak heart…"

"Did she say so?"

"No, but she has all the symptoms…Of course, you'll make a point of looking upstairs first."

Judge obviously was reluctant to assent to her plan. "I suppose we can think of nothing better. Apart altogether from putting a deliberate deceit on a defenceless and unsuspecting woman, we have to consider the circumstance that she will be alone in a large and gloomy house very likely upwards of half an hour; and you say her heart is not in good shape."

"I expect she'll survive the ordeal, and if it's any consolation to you, I fancy her own programme won't bear a great deal of looking at."

"What programme is that?"

"Oh, I don't pretend to know the details, Mr. Judge; only I'm pretty sure she's hatching something. Otherwise, why should she go to the trouble of blackmailing me into accompanying you to-day? I don't suppose you're aware of the fact that she openly threatened me with informing my aunt that I had met you privately at Worthing?"

"You didn't tell me that!…Upon my soul!…Solely for the purpose of getting you to come?

"Yes. I refused at first. I wasn't very keen on her society, to tell you the truth."

"But what can her motive be for such conduct?"

"I have my ideas on the subject."

"I really must ask you…"

"I may be mistaken, but my belief is she wants to compromise me."

"But why?"

Isbel smiled cynically. "As a necessary preliminary to breaking off my intimacy with you, I imagine."