"I agree with you there," said Guy with sudden warmth. "It's an infamous proposal. I can't see what's at the bottom of it either unless there is still a party in Livadia who believe in her father's claim. I thought they were pretty well extinct." He paused for a moment, his brow puckered in deep and anxious reflection. "Anyhow," he added, "you have put yourself into a frightfully delicate position. Da Freitas will move heaven and earth to find the girl, and you can be quite sure he will get any possible assistance he asks for from our people." "I don't believe he'll ask for any," said Tony. "I've got a notion that they want to keep this marriage business as quiet as possible. Why should they have tried to rush it so, otherwise? If that's right they will probably be only too anxious to keep the police out of it, especially since they have seen Isabel with me." "But do you think her uncle recognized you?" "Can't say," replied Tony tranquilly. "He only saw me for a second in the hall of the Club, and he was so agitated then that even a beautiful face like mine might have escaped him. Still I should think they were bound to get on our track sooner or later. That's the worst of a carelessly built place like London. One always runs into the people one doesn't want to meet." "There are those other men too," said Guy, who was evidently pondering each point in the problem--"the men who are following her about. What do you make of them?" "I shall have to make an example of them," said Tony firmly. "I really can't have dirty foreigners hanging about outside my house. It's so bad for one's reputation." "Oh, do be serious for a moment," pleaded Guy almost angrily. "We are in this business now, and----" "_We!_" echoed Tony with pleasure. "My dear Guy! Do you really mean that you're going to lend us your powerful aid?" "Of course I am," said Guy impatiently. "I think you were very foolish to mix yourself up in the affair at all, but since you have chosen to do it, you don't suppose that I shall desert you. If ever you wanted assistance I should say you did now." Tony leaned across, and taking his cousin's hand, shook it warmly over the breakfast table. "Dear old Guy," he observed. "I always thought that under a rather forbidding exterior you concealed the heart of a true sportsman." "Nonsense," returned Guy. "I am your secretary, and it's my business to look after you when you make an idiot of yourself." He paused. "Besides," he added, "there is the girl to be considered." Tony nodded. "Yes," he said, "we must consider Isabel. By the way I have never thanked you for being so nice to her yesterday. She told me that you were perfectly charming." For a second time Guy's face assumed a faint tinge of colour.