"I should have thought you were accustomed to inventing excuses by now," said Brand deliberately. "You’ve had a good deal of experience, one way and another. You have brought the papers, I suppose? Here, look at the Sketch. Hold it in your left hand, so. Put your bag underneath on your lap; take out the papers, and pass them to me presently. Not just yet, those people over there are looking. Thanks. You’re sure they are what I want?" "Of course they are what you want," said Dora. "Understand, this is the very last thing I’m going to do for you. I’ve paid you back a thousandfold for the little you did. For that matter, you did me the worst turn you ever did to any one in all your life. My marriage has brought me nothing but misery and discomfort." "Oh, so you think you have paid your debt, do you?" said Brand. "Tea for two, waiter, please. Hot cakes I think you like, Mrs. Farquharson; or, as it’s summer, would you prefer sandwiches? Yes, cucumber sandwiches, I think, please—anything cool. You were saying—by the way, how much you amuse me, Mrs. Farquharson!" "Amuse you!" repeated Dora. She pulled her veil down again, shrinking back into the corner as two strangers from the sea front, who had come in for tea, passed by and glanced at the pair curiously. "Cream? Sugar?" asked Brand. "What, no sugar? I should take it if I were you." He handed her her teacup with some deliberation. "There’s one quality that you lack, Mrs. Farquharson—you have all other charms, of course. You don’t balance things quite aptly. Now, as a matter of fact, you owe me a debt that can never be properly repaid. I’ve done the utmost that a man can do for any woman—I’ve even jeopardized my wife’s honour that you might gain what you desired." He shrugged his shoulders. "The fact that what you then gained is now of no value to you doesn’t matter at all. The point is that you haven’t paid your debt off yet—that there’s still more to be done before you and I can properly call quits." "More still!" said Dora. She was very pale, and her hand was shaking. "More still!" Her voice rose hysterically. Brand leant back in his chair. "You shall be free after this one more act, I promise you. It’s comparatively a difficult job, I grant. You know that, owing to widespread dissension on the frontier, there’s a question of a certain treaty between a very important Power and England. The terms of that treaty intimately concern another Power—she is anxious to know how far her welfare is attacked. Your husband is sure to have notes relating to the negotiations amongst his papers. He is a careful man—you may find it difficult to distinguish them from the rest of his possessions. So on this occasion I must ask you to be wholesale in your methods; you must get at the whole contents of his safe and send them to me. What I don’t want I shall destroy—be sure of that."