"Have a glass of wine, then! I'm not going to stir till you have something. You look tired out." "I never touch wine. I think perhaps I could drink some cor-fee!" Cornelia said doubtfully, and Guest's stern face suddenly lightened into a smile. "Coffee! The worst thing possible for your nerves. You funny little girl! You have not the smallest glimmering of an idea how to take care of yourself." To his surprise and alarm, two big tears brimmed up suddenly in Cornelia's eyes, and her lips quivered. "Don't be good to me!" she whispered sharply. "_Don't_! For two straws I'll howl! I'm all worked up. Take me out, out into the street, quick, before I make a scene!" Guest needed no second bidding. In an incredibly short time the untasted meal was paid for, a hansom summoned, and he was driving once more through the streets by Cornelia's side, while she mopped her eyes with a minute pocket-handkerchief. "_You_ haven't lived with her for days at a time. ... _You_ haven't thought of her as a friend. ... _You_ haven't had her nurse you, when you were sick!..." "Thank heaven for that!" ejaculated Guest, devoutly. It was ridiculous to indulge in sentiment in connection with a thief and a forger; the woman deserved no mercy, and would receive none, if he had his way; none the less was he charmed by Cornelia's emotion, by her pity, her amazing inconsistency. Gone were her airs of complacency and independence; at the first threatening of danger the pretty pretence was broken up; weak, trembling, tearful, she summoned her natural protector to her side! Guest's heart swelled with a passion of tenderness. In his immaculate frock-coat, freshly-creased trousers, and irreproachable silk hat, he was as truly a knight-errant at that moment as any mailed warrior of old, going forth to fight a tourney for his lady's favour. "Don't cry!" he cried eagerly. "Look here, you know, if you want me to let her down lightly, you must pull yourself together. I can't stand this. If you cry any more--I'll--_kill her_!" Cornelia swallowed dismally, blinking the tears from her eyelids. "I don't know as it wouldn't be the best way out, as far as she's concerned, but I'd just as lief you didn't _all_ turn criminals on my hands! I'll pull myself up once we are there, but I'm all of a flutter thinking it over in advance." "We'll be there soon now," Guest told her reassuringly. They drove in silence down the length of Bond Street, and out into the whirl of Piccadilly. Soon, almost too soon for Cornelia's jangled nerves, they had drawn up before the great door of the hotel.