“Events seem to prove that,” said the Chinaman drily, “I am merely being consistent, Miss Ardfern. You have been under my personal observation for seven years. Seven years, day and night, either I, or one of my servants have been watching you. You never went--” he stopped and changed the conversation. “Miss Ardfern never went to Mr. Trasmere’s house but you weren’t watching outside, that is what you were going to say, wasn’t it, Yeh Ling?” smiled Carver. “You need not be reticent, because I know all about it, and Miss Ardfern knows that I know.” “That was what I was going to say,” said the other. “I usually followed Miss Ardfern from the theatre to her hotel; from her hotel to Trasmere’s house, and home again when she had finished working.” The reporter and detective exchanged glances. This, then, was the explanation of the mysterious Chinaman who had been seen by Mr. Stott’s servant waiting outside Mayfield smoking a cigar in the cold hours of the morning. It explained, also the appearance of the cyclist in the roadway that morning when the tyres of Ursula Ardfern’s car had burst and Tab had been on hand to render timely assistance. “I had no idea,” breathed the astonished girl, “is that true, Yeh Ling? Oh, how kind you have been.” Tab saw tears in her eyes and wished that he, and not this uninteresting Chinaman, had been the person who excited her gratitude. “Kindness is a relative term,” said Yeh Ling. He had brought his feet up on a chair and was rolling a cigarette; he had asked permission with his eyes and as Ursula nodded, he lit it with a quick flick of his fingers, a match having appeared, as it seemed, out of space, and carefully replaced the stalk in a match-box. “Was it kindness that you saved the life of one who is to me the light of my eyes and the inspiration of my soul, if you will forgive what may seem to you, a writer, Mr. Holland, a piece of flowery orientalism, but which is to me the quintessence of sincerity.” Then without preamble he told his story; a story which was only half-known to the girl.