"Yes," he said doggedly, "I do mean the man who was once a great money-lender. He's retired now--in fact he's living----" and then he stopped himself. "Why, of course!" Katty felt quite excited. "He's living in Yorkshire, near the Haworths! They've often talked about him to me! They don't know him--he won't know anybody. He's a rather queer fish, isn't he, Godfrey?" "He's absolutely straight about money," exclaimed Godfrey Pavely defensively. "I've had dealings with him over many years. In fact he's the ideal man for this kind of thing. He has all sorts of irons in the fire--financially I mean--on the Continent. He's a big shareholder in the company that runs the Dieppe and Boulogne Casinos." He got up. "Well, I ought to be going now. It's all right isn't it, Katty? You won't talk again of going away?" "Could you let me have that two hundred pounds this afternoon?" she asked abruptly. Godfrey Pavely looked at her with a curious, yearning, rather sad look. Somehow he would have preferred that Katty should not be quite so--so--he hardly formulated the thought to himself--so ready to do _anything_ for money. "Very well," he said. "Very well, my dear"--he very seldom called her "my dear," but he had done so once or twice lately. "I'll bring it this afternoon, in notes." "That _will_ be kind of you," she said gratefully. "But look here, Godfrey, do take it out of my thousand pounds! Put eight hundred in this thing." He shook his head and smiled. Women were queer, curiously unscrupulous creatures! "That would be right down dishonest of me, Katty." They were now walking across the little lawn, which was so securely tucked away, out of sight of any prying window, and before going through the aperture which had been cut in the hedge, they both turned round and clasped hands. "Thank you so--so much," she said softly. "You've been a dear, kind friend to me always, Godfrey." "Have I?" he said. "Have I, Katty? Not always, I fear." "Yes, always," and her voice trembled a little. He bent down and kissed her on the mouth with a kind of shamed, passionate solemnity which moved, and, yes, a little amused her. What _queer_, curiously scrupulous creatures men were! "Go now, or you'll be late," she whispered. And he went. PART TWO CHAPTER XIII Certain days become retrospectively memorable, and that however apparently uneventful they may have seemed at the time. To Laura Pavely the 6th of January opened as had done all the other days during the last few weeks, that is, quietly, dully, and sadly. There was one difference, trifling or not as one happened to look at the matter. Godfrey was away in London. He had been absent for over a week--since the 28th, and though he had been expected back last night, there had come a telephone message, late in the afternoon, to say that his business would keep him away a day longer.