He saw her and made a little motion with his hand suggesting his desire to speak to her. She stopped the victoria. “I hope you will be at home this afternoon,” he said. “I am so anxious to speak with you for five minutes.” “I will walk the rest of the way home: I have not had a walk to-day,” she said, stepping out of the victoria. “You are very good,” he said, as the machine whirled off. “Do let us turn into the gardens for a minute. I should not like to miss this chance. You saw that announcement in the papers to-day?” “Ah--ah!” she sighed, as they went through one of the gates and on to an avenue made dim by the boughs of horse-chestnut. “Think of it! Think of that paragraph if you can when I tell you that she told me only on Monday that she loved me,” he cried. She stopped short. So she had not been mistaken after all. “She promised--Josephine promised?” “She promised. I gave you to understand that I meant to put my fate to the test, and I did so on Monday. Ah, she told me that she loved me--me only--me only--and I know that she spoke the truth. She loved me then--she loves me now--me only--and yet--you saw that announcement.” Amber could only shake her head dolefully. Matters were getting too complicated for her. The effort to reconcile one incident with another was a pain to her. “You told me that she was free,” he continued. “That was because you did not know that she had been engaged secretly to that man. He was clever enough--unscrupulous enough--clever people are unscrupulous. It is only the people who are less clever that fail to get rid of their scruples--at any rate he persuaded her to bind herself to him in secret. Later--a fortnight ago--she insisted on his releasing her and he did so--technically; but in parting from her--more cleverness--he gave her to understand that he regarded her as still bound to him--he made it a matter of honour--she was only released on _parole_--a trick. Was she not entitled to listen to me? No one can deny it. She had her misgivings, but that was afterwards--she had confessed that she loved me--me only. I did not give the matter a thought. She had no doubt that she would be able to meet him. Her protection was to ask him to go to her father for his consent.” “And he took her at her word. He got her father’s consent. They are both politicians--her father and the other. And every member of the Government knows enough about every other member of the Government to hang him. They must have made a compact together. They say that Mr. Clifton is the cleverest politician in England. We know what that means. My father says, ‘Show me the cleverest politician in England and I’ll show you the greatest rascal in Europe.’” “There must have been something diabolical at work. This is the letter which she wrote to me. Poor girl! Poor girl!”