"What good would that have been to me?" she answered. "I have no name, no friends. Can't you imagine the sort of people who would have come hanging on to my skirts, if I had made my début on the scene as a widow or a spinster with a large fortune, unattached, looking for companions? No! I need your name, Mr. Stirling Deane." "I am not at all sure," he answered grimly, "that you will find that much of an asset." "You must see to it that I do find it an asset, and a valuable one," she answered. "You are relieved now from any fear of that deed being produced. There is no shadow of evidence to connect you with the man Sinclair, or with my brother's transaction with him. If your lawyers are clever and you are brave, you must win your case with honor, and Hefferom will be sent to prison. He deserves it, in any case." Deane nodded. "I shall win my case all right," he said. "For me there never was any danger except in the production of that document, concerning which you have been so mysterious." "It was mine," she answered. "I ran all the risk to get it. I ran risks the memory of which will haunt me all my days. I have lost Basil. All that I can do is to exact the utmost price that you can pay for that little paper." "It isn't worth it, you know," said Deane. "I believe, even now, that I should win my case, anyhow." She smiled--a curious little contraction of the corners of her lips. Her eyes mocked him. "Perhaps," she said, "but it is a different thing since Sinclair's murder. Its production to-day would ruin you inevitably, whether it were held a legal document or not." "We all make mistakes," he said, looking out of the window. "But too often others pay for them!" she murmured, turning away. Presently he gave some instructions to the chauffeur. The pace of the car slackened as they reached the outskirts of London and turned westward. "Well," he remarked, "the world is full of surprises for us. I little thought, when I came down to Rakney, that it was to find a bride!" She shivered a little at his words, but made no reply. "Forgive me," he said, "if I do not seem very coherent about it all. As a matter of fact, you see, I was not expecting to take up obligations of this sort again so quickly." "If you do not mind," she said coldly, "we will not discuss it." "I may at least be permitted to ask," he continued, "when it is your intention to--marry me?" "In about two months' time," she answered. "You would like our engagement announced?" he asked. She hesitated for a few seconds. "In a fortnight's time," she declared. "In the meantime," he inquired, "I shall have the pleasure of being received by you?" "Certainly," she answered. "I shall expect to lunch and dine with you occasionally, to be taken to the theatres, and for short expeditions into the country--Ranelagh and Hurlingham, for instance." "Delightful!"