"You stop here and talk to Nancy," replied Mark. "There's no hurry about the books, and she can save me a lot of trouble by explaining how we run the practice. She really knows rather more about it than I do." He knocked out his pipe, and, thrusting it into his pocket, hurried off downstairs on the heels of Martha Jane. Colin closed the door and came back to where Nancy was sitting. "So Fenton's sense of duty is still in good working order," he observed. With a little impatient gesture Nancy brushed aside a stray curl. "I was very annoyed at his coming down here," she said. "If I'd thought for a moment that he was going to do a thing like that I shouldn't have given him my address." Colin took up his old position on the fire-guard and looked thoughtfully into her indignant blue eyes. "What did he want, Nancy?" he asked. "Oh, it was only to invite me to dine and go to a theatre with him on Wednesday. Of course, he could just as well have written to me or rung me up on the telephone." "And did you accept?" Nancy shrugged her shoulders. "I couldn't very well help it. He asked me while we were at lunch, and I didn't like to say I was engaged, because Doctor Ashton would have known it was untrue." "Otherwise you would have refused him?" Nancy nodded. "It may seem ungrateful, but as a matter of fact I don't want to see Major Fenton again. I never liked him very much, and the last time I was with him he----" She hesitated. "Oh, well, he was different in a way, and, to put it quite plainly, I liked him even less. Besides, I haven't forgotten the horrid things he said about you." Colin searched in his pocket and pulled out the report which Marsden had given him. "That makes my job a bit easier," he remarked. She gazed curiously at the slip of paper. "What's that?" she demanded. Colin sat back, still holding it in his hand. "I've been doing a quite unpardonable sort of thing, Nancy," he said. "Before I tell you, will you promise to forgive me?" "Certainly," she said, smiling. "I can always forgive anything that's really unpardonable. It makes one feel so nice and generous." Without waiting for further encouragement Colin plunged at once into a full description of how he had taken advantage of the Inspector's half-joking offer to make some inquiries with regard to Fenton's character and reputation. He told the whole story quite simply, allowing his own motives in the matter to be taken for granted, and ended by reading her the report. Nancy, who had listened to him gravely, made no comment until he had finished. Then with a quaint and rather rueful little laugh she looked up into his face. "It's a disappointing world, isn't it?" she said. "I did honestly believe that there was something kind and unselfish about his original intentions." She paused. "And you say you saw him in the street? Why, he must have left here over an hour ago." "I saw him all right," repeated Colin.