Like a newly-fledged gambler, who wins every game through sheer ignorance, Lesbia's desperately-played card turned up trumps in four and twenty hours. Lord Charvington sent her a cheque by return of post and invited her to come and explain matters to him personally. Lesbia danced with joy. "Now!" she said to herself. "George is safe. Thank God!" CHAPTER XI THE SEAMY SIDE When Mr. Hale returned in three days from London, he was surprised to find Lesbia extremely cheerful. She had every right to be, since she had given the fifty-pound cheque to Canning, and he was now in town looking into the matter of the Henley burglary. How Canning managed to get away from his master so expeditiously, Lesbia could not tell, nor did she inquire. It was quite enough for her to know that The Shadow was searching into the case. To Lord Charvington she had sent a letter thanking him for the money, and promising to come over and tell him everything as soon as she could. These things made her hopeful and bright in spite of her enforced severance from George, and she managed, by looking towards a bright future, to possess her soul in patience. But Hale was ignorant of what she was doing, and her behaviour puzzled him. "I thought you loved Walker," he said abruptly, and with suspicion. "Of course I do," rejoined the girl cheerfully. "It does not seem like it." Lesbia shrugged her shoulders. "What is the use of crying over spilt milk?" she asked. "My going about with a long face will not make George's position any the more endurable. Some day when his character has been cleared things will change." "They will never change," said Mr. Hale coldly and severely. "Walker has committed a sordid crime, and can never marry you." "I don't believe that he is guilty," retorted Lesbia deliberately. "And even if I grant for the sake of argument that he is, Miss Ellis does not seem to think that his guilt is a bar to his marriage with her." "She's a love-sick fool." "So am I." "With this difference, that she can marry him and you can't. And talking of Miss Ellis," went on Hale, becoming more stern than ever; "I saw her in London and she told me that you had actually been to see her." "Why not?" asked Lesbia defiantly. "That is no crime." "It is an impertinence to see her and to talk to her as you did. Why did you go, Lesbia?" "I wished to find out how she proposed to force George to become her husband. I have learned that much. She intends to force him by telling a lie." "How do you know that what she says is a lie?" demanded Hale angrily. "Because I read it in her eyes. A man would not have done so, but I am a woman, and you can trust one woman to learn everything another woman leaves unsaid, especially when a man is the stake between them." "You should have more modesty," snapped her father uncomfortably.