"As it happened," he said, "I am here by the merest accident. It may seem strange to you, but it is perfectly true. I have just come out of Waldorf's, above there, and I saw you all three upon the pavement." "I am glad to hear it," Wolfenden said. "More glad," Felix said, "than I was to see you with them. Can you not believe what I tell you? shall I give you proof? will you be convinced then? Every moment you spend with that man is an evil one for you. You may have thought me inclined to be melodramatic last night. Perhaps I was! All the same the man is a fiend. Will you not be warned? I tell you that he is a fiend." "Perhaps he is," Wolfenden said indifferently. "I am not interested in him." "But you are interested--in his companion." Wolfenden frowned. "I think," he said, "that we will leave the lady out of the conversation." Felix sighed. "You are a good fellow," he said; "but, forgive me, like all your countrymen, you carry chivalry just a thought too far--even to simplicity. You do not understand such people and their ways." Wolfenden was getting angry, but he held himself in check. "You know nothing against her," he said slowly. "It is true," Felix answered. "I know nothing against her. It is not necessary. She is his creature. That is apparent. The shadow of his wickedness is enough." Wolfenden checked himself in the middle of a hot reply. He was suddenly conscious of the absurdity of losing his temper in the open street with a man so obviously ill-balanced--possessed, too, of such strange and wild impulses. "Let us talk," he said, "of something else, or say good-morning. Which way were you going?" "To the Russian Embassy," Felix said, "I have some work to do this afternoon." Wolfenden looked at him curiously. "Our ways, then, are the same for a short distance," he said. "Let us walk together. Forgive me, but you are really, then, attached to the Embassy?" Felix nodded, and glanced at his companion with a smile. "I am not what you call a fraud altogether," he said. "I am junior secretary to Prince Lobenski. You, I think, are not a politician, are you?" Wolfenden shook his head. "I take no interest in politics," he said. "I shall probably have to sit in the House of Lords some day, but I shall be sorry indeed when the time comes." Felix sighed, and was silent for a moment. "You are perhaps fortunate," he said. "The ways of the politician are not exactly rose-strewn. You represent a class which in my country does not exist. There we are all either in the army, or interested in statecraft. Perhaps the secure position of your country does not require such ardent service?" "You are--of what nationality, may I ask?" Wolfenden inquired. Felix hesitated. "Perhaps," he said, "you had better not know. The less you know of me the better. The time may come when it will be to your benefit to be ignorant." Wolfenden took no pains to hide his incredulity.