"I can marry you at half-past two," said the registrar, "we like a day's notice, but in an exceptional case--" Steppe paid. The Mervilles had not gone in to lunch when he arrived. Beryl was in her room, the doctor working in his study. Steppe wondered what he was working at. "I want to see Miss Merville--don't disturb the doctor." She came down, a listless, hopeless girl. Intuitively she knew that he had been told. What would he do: she stopped at the door of her father's study, fighting her fear. Should she tell him first? In the end she came to Steppe. "Well, Beryl. What is this I hear about Ronald Morelle and you, huh?" "What have you heard?" "That you've been his mistress--that's what I've heard. Damned fine news for a bridegroom, huh? Does your father know?" She shook her head. "Do you want him to know?" "I don't care." "You don't care, huh? Got that way now, so that you don't care. You'll marry me this afternoon." She looked up. "This afternoon?" "Yuh. You'd better tell the doctor; you can tell him anything else you like about Morelle--but if you don't tell, I won't." Her hand had gone up to her cheek. "This afternoon--I can't--give me a day--you said it would be tomorrow. I'm not ready." "This afternoon at half past two. Will you tell the doctor, or shall I?" She was trying to think. "I'll tell him. As you wish. This afternoon." Lunch went into the dining room. Nobody touched food. Steppe had to return to the house to get the wedding ring, send telegrams changing the date of his arrival in Paris, settle such minor details of household management as the change necessitated. He was at the registrar's office when they came, Dr. Merville and the white-faced girl. In a cab behind the doctor's car travelled two Scotland Yard detectives. The ceremony was simple. The repetition of a few sentences and Beryl Merville became Beryl Van Steppe. She did not know that his name was Van Steppe until she saw the marriage certificate. "You can go home with your father. Be ready to leave by the boat train tonight." So he dismissed her. All the way back to the house the doctor was talking, cheerfully, helpfully. She did not hear him. She was looking at the broad gold ring on her finger. As they were entering the house her father leaned back, and scrutinized the street. "I'm sure I've seen those two men before--weren't they waiting outside the registrar's, Beryl?" Beryl had seen only one man. A man with a black beard, a broad, swarthy face and two eyes wherein burned the fires of hell. XIII Evie brought the news at a run. She had been shopping with Teddy--the store had given her a holiday, and there was some talk of subscribing for a wedding present. "I said to Teddy, 'let's stop and see who it is'--we knew it was somebody swagger by the two cars and the cab outside the door. And then I thought that I knew one of the cars. I said, 'Teddy, I'll bet it is Beryl Merville'--and it was!"