"I suppose, then, you're a very busy person?" "Well, pretty much so in the mornings and sometimes up till late at night, but Errington's a rattling good 'boss' and very often gives me an 'afternoon out.' That's why I'm here now. I'm off duty and Miss de Gervais told me I might come to tea whenever I'm free. You see"--confidentially--"I've very few friends in London." "Same here," responded Diana shortly. "No, not really?"--with obvious satisfaction. "Then we ought to pal up together, oughtn't we?" "Don't you want my credentials?" asked Diana, smiling, "Lord, no! One has only to look at you." Diana laughed outright. "That's quite the nicest compliment I've ever received, Mr. Leigh," she said. (It was odd that while Errington always made her feel rather small and depressingly young, with Jerry Leigh she felt herself to be quite a woman of the world.) "It isn't a compliment," protested Jerry stoutly. "It's just the plain, unvarnished truth." "I'm afraid your 'boss' wouldn't agree with you." "Oh, nonsense!" "Indeed it isn't. He always treats me as though I were a hot potato, and he were afraid of burning his fingers." Jerry roared. "Well, perhaps he's got good reason." Diana shook; her head smilingly. "Oh, no. It's not that. Mr. Errington doesn't like me." Jerry stared at her reflectively. "That couldn't be true," he said at last, with conviction. "I don't know that I like him--very much--either," pursued Diana. "You would if you really knew him," said the boy eagerly. "He's one of the very best." "He's rather a mysterious person, don't you think?" Jerry regarded her very straightly. "Oh, well," he returned bluntly, "every man's a right to have his own private affairs." Then there _was_ something! Diana felt her heart beat a little faster. She had thrown out the remark as the merest feeler, and now his own secretary, the man who must be nearer to him than any other, had given what was tantamount to an acknowledgment of the fact that Errington's life held some secret. "Anyway"--Jerry was speaking again--"_I've_ got good reason to be grateful to him. I was on my uppers when he happened along--and without any prospect of re-soling. I'd played the fool at Monte Carlo, and, like a brick, he offered me the job of private secretary, and I've been with him ever since. I'd no references, either--he just took me on trust." "That was very kind of him," said Diana slowly. "Kind! There isn't one man in a hundred who'll give a chance like that to a young ass that's played the goat as I did." "No," agreed Diana. "But," she added, rather low, "he isn't always kind."