'I mean'--he lowered his voice--'are we safe from interruption? It's all right; don't look frightened. The fact is, I want to speak of something rather awkward--but it's something you ought to know about, if you don't already.' 'I am quite at leisure,' she replied; adding, with a nervous movement of the head, 'there will be no interruption.' 'I want to ask you, then, have you seen Mrs. Strangeways lately?' 'No.' 'Nor Mrs. Carnaby?' 'No.' 'I understand you've broken with them altogether? You don't want anything more to do with that lot?' 'I have nothing whatever to do with them,' Alma replied, steadying her voice to a cold dignity. 'And I think you're quite right. Now, look here--you've heard, I dare say, that I'm going to be married? Well, I'm not the kind of fellow to talk sentiment, as you know. But I've had fair luck in life, and I feel pretty pleased with myself, and if I can do anybody a friendly turn--anybody that deserves it--I'm all there. I want you just to think of me as a friend, and nothing else. You're rather set against me, I know; but try and forget all about that. Things are changed. After all, you know, I'm one of the men that people talk about; my name has got into the "directories of talent", as somebody calls them; and I have a good deal at stake. It won't do for me to go fooling about any more. All I mean is, that you can trust me, down to the ground. And there's nobody I would be better pleased to help in a friendly way than you, Mrs. Rolfe.' Alma was gazing at him in surprise, mingled with apprehension. 'Please say what you mean. I don't see how you can possibly do me any service. I have given up all thought of a professional career. 'I know you have. I'm sorry for it, but it isn't that I want to talk about. You don't see Mrs. Carnaby, but I suppose you hear of her now and then?' 'Very rarely.' 'You know that she has been taken up by Lady Isobel Barker?' 'Who is Lady Isobel Barker?' 'Why, she's a daughter of the Earl of Bournemouth, and she married a fellow on the Stock Exchange. There are all sorts of amusing stories about her. I don't mean anything shady--just the opposite. She did a good deal of slumming at the time when it was fashionable, and started a home for women of a certain kind--all that sort of thing. Barker is by way of being a millionaire, and they live in great style; have Royalties down at Boscombe, and so on. Well, Mrs. Carnaby has got hold of her. I don't know how she managed it. Just after that affair it looked as if she would have a bad time. People cut her--you know all about that?' 'No, I don't. You mean that they thought----' 'Just so; they did think.' He nodded and smiled. 'She was all the talk at the clubs, and, no doubt, in the boudoirs. I wasn't a friend of hers, you know--I met her now and then, that was all; so I didn't quite know what to think. But it looked--_didn't_ it?' Alma avoided his glance, and said nothing.