‘That ought not to be very difficult to arrange. I’ll go down now and have a cup of tea, and I may, I hope, come up and see you again before bed-time.’ ‘Wait one moment,’ cried Walpole, as the other was about to leave the room. ‘Do you see a small tray on that table yonder, with some trinkets? Yes, that is it. Well, will you do me the favour to choose something amongst them as your fee? Come, come, you know you are my doctor now, and I insist on this. There’s nothing of any value there, and you will have no misgivings.’ ‘Am I to take it haphazard?’ asked Atlee. ‘Whatever you like,’ said the other indolently. ‘I have selected a ring,’ said Atlee, as he drew it on his finger. ‘Not an opal?’ ‘Yes, it is an opal with brilliants round it.’ ‘I’d rather you’d taken all the rest than that. Not that I ever wear it, but somehow it has a bit of memory attached to it!’ ‘Do you know,’ said Atlee gravely, ‘you are adding immensely to the value I desired to see in it? I wanted something as a souvenir of you--what the Germans call an _Andenken_, and here is evidently what has some secret clue to your affections. It was not an old love-token?’ ‘No; or I should certainly not part with it.’ ‘It did not belong to a friend now no more?’ ‘Nor that either,’ said he, smiling at the other’s persistent curiosity. ‘Then if it be neither the gift of an old love nor a lost friend, I’ll not relinquish it,’ cried Joe. ‘Be it so,’ said Walpole, half carelessly. ‘Mine was a mere caprice after all. It is linked with a reminiscence--there’s the whole of it; but if you care for it, pray keep it.’ ‘I do care for it, and I will keep it.’ It was a very peculiar smile that curled Walpole’s lip as he heard this speech, and there was an expression in his eyes that seemed to say, ‘What manner of man is this, what sort of nature, new and strange to me, is he made of?’ ‘Bye-bye!’ said Atlee carelessly, and he strolled away. CHAPTER XV IN THE GARDEN AT DUSK When Atlee quitted Walpole’s room, he was far too full of doubt and speculation to wish to join the company in the drawing-room. He had need of time to collect his thoughts, too, and arrange his plans. This sudden departure of his would, he well knew, displease Kearney. It would savour of a degree of impertinence, in treating their hospitality so cavalierly, that Dick was certain to resent, and not less certain to attribute to a tuft-hunting weakness on Atlee’s part of which he had frequently declared he detected signs in Joe’s character. ‘Be it so. I’ll only say, you’ll not see me cultivate “swells” for the pleasure of their society, or even the charms of their cookery. If I turn them to no better uses than display, Master Dick, you may sneer freely at me. I have long wanted to make acquaintance with one of these fellows, and luck has now given me the chance. Let us see if I know how to profit by it.’