"Exactly. I was going out to post it when you came." "I am sure you were." "And if you could spare five minutes later--if I am here----" Carrados slid his cigarette-case under some papers on the desk. "I will call for that," he assented. "Let us say about half-past eight." * * * * * "I am still at large, you see, Mr Carrados; though after reflecting on the studied formality of the inspector's business here, I imagine that you will scarcely be surprised." "I have made it a habit," admitted Carrados, "never to be surprised." "However, I still want to cut a rather different figure in your eyes. You regard me, Mr Carrados, either as a detected rogue or a repentant ass?" "Another excellent rule is never to form deductions from uncertainties." Straithwaite made a gesture of mild impatience. "You only give me ten minutes. If I am to put my case before you, Mr Carrados, we cannot fence with phrases.... To-day you have had an exceptional opportunity of penetrating into our mode of life. You will, I do not doubt, have summed up our perpetual indebtedness and the easy credit that our connexion procures; Stephanie's social ambitions and expensive popularity; her utterly extravagant incapacity to see any other possible existence; and my tacit acquiescence. You will, I know, have correctly gauged her irresponsible, neurotic temperament, and judged the result of it in conflict with my own. What possibly has escaped you, for in society one has to disguise these things, is that I still love my wife. "When you dare not trust the soundness of your reins you do not try to pull up a bolting horse. For three years I have endeavoured to guide Stephanie round awkward comers with as little visible restraint as possible. When we differ over any project upon which she has set her heart Stephanie has one strong argument." "That you no longer love her?" "Well, perhaps; but more forcibly expressed. She rushes to the top of the building--there are six floors, Mr Carrados, and we are on the second--and climbing on to the banister she announces her intention of throwing herself down into the basement. In the meanwhile I have followed her and drag her back again. One day I shall stay where I am and let her do as she intends." "I hope not," said Carrados gravely. "Oh, don't be concerned. She will then climb back herself. But it will mark an epoch. It was by that threat that she obtained my acquiescence to this scheme--that and the certainty that she would otherwise go on without me. But I had no intention of allowing her to land herself--to say nothing of us both--behind the bars of a prison if I could help it. And, above all, I wished to cure her of her fatuous delusion that she is clever, in the hope that she may then give up being foolish.