"No," I answered, my heart sinking. "Though we have come together again after that long blank in both our lives, we are yet held apart by a cruel circumstance. She is already engaged to be married to another man." "But she will break it, never fear. Ella loves you--you can't doubt that." "I know. I know that. But it is an engagement she cannot break. She will be that man's wife in a month." "You absolutely amaze me. She told me nothing of this, but on the contrary led me to believe that she was still free, and that you were to be her affianced husband." "There is some reason--some secret reason why I cannot be," I said. "It was to discuss this point with you that I have travelled from London. I must ask you to forgive me, Miss Miller, for troubling you with my private affairs, but you are, you know, Ella's most intimate and most devoted friend." "You are not troubling me in the least," my companion declared. "We are friends, you and I, and if I can help you, I will with pleasure do so." "Then I want to ask you a few questions," I said eagerly. "First, tell me how long you have known Mr Gordon-Wright?" "Oh! ever since I was quite a little girl. He used to give me francs and buy me bon-bons long ago in the old days in Paris. Why?" "Because I had an idea that he might perhaps be a new acquaintance." "Oh, dear no. My father and he have been friends for many years. He comes here to stay, sometimes for a couple of months at a time. He has bad health, and his London doctor often orders him abroad." "Who is he?" "A gentleman. He was in the Navy on the China station, I think. He's a most amusing companion, full of droll anecdotes, and seems to know everybody. Dad says that he's one of the most popular men about London. He has a splendid steam yacht and once or twice he has taken us for cruises. It was in port here for a week at the beginning of the year." "Where does he live?" "In Half Moon Street in London." "Has he a country place?" "I never heard of it." Then she was unaware, I saw, that he lived on the Cornish border. Her father, of course, knew the truth, and kept it concealed from her. The fact that he came there to hide for months at a time, and that he travelled about in a steam yacht were sufficient to show that he was one of the clever and ingenious band who had, during the past ten years, effected certain _coups_ so gigantic that they had startled Europe. "When I met him how long had he been staying with you at the Manor?" "Only one day. He came on the previous morning, and he left an hour after you did. He wished to consult my father about something--some securities he contemplates purchasing, I think." "Was Ella acquainted with him?" "No. Ella never saw him. He was upstairs in his room, you remember, when we brought her home, and she left in the morning before he was up." "You don't think that it was he who met her in the park after she left me?" I suggested.