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"Don't be rash, Hugh," urged the other

"Rash!" he cried "It's true that whensurprise My father was a very curious e of bankruptcy and that the Manor and the land ht be sold up any day When old Charman, the solicitor, read the will, I found thatat the bank, and that he had left it all to me--provided I married Louise!"

"Well, why not marry her?" queried Brock lazily "You're always so h"

"Why!--because I love Dorise Ranscomb But Louise interests me, and I'm worried on her account because of that infernal fellow Charles Benton Louise poses as his adopted daughter Benton is a bachelor of forty-five, and, according to his story, he adopted Louise when she was a child and put her to school Her parentage is aschool she at first went to live with a Mrs Sheldon, a young , in an expensive suite in Queen Anne's Mansions, Westminster After that she has travelled about with friends and has, I believe, been abroad quite a lot I've nothing against Louise, except--well, except for the strange uncanny influence which that man Benton has over her I hate the fellow!"

"I see! And as you cannot yet reach Woodthorpe and your father's fortune, except by oing to do now?"

"First, I intend that this woman they call 'Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo,' the lucky woman who is a decoy of the Administration of the Bains de Mer, shall tell me the true circumstance of thened"

"Meanwhile you love Lady Ranscohter, you say?"

"Yes I love Dorise with allof the conditions of the will"

There was a silence of soeon-shots below

Away across the white balustrade of the broadas the winter afternoon drew in An engine whistled--that of the flower train which daily travels express froer train-deluxe, and bearing mimosa, carnations, and violets from the Cote d'Azur to Covent Garden, and to the florists' shops in England

"You've never told h," remarked Brock at last

"Exact circumstances? Ah! That's what I want to know Only that wo uv'-nor was called up to London by an urgent letter We had a shooting party at Woodthorpe and he leftthat he had soht--or he ht be away a week Days passed and he did not return Several letters came for him which I kept in the library I was surprised that he neither wrote nor returned, when, suddenly, ten days later, we had a telegra in St George's Hospital I dashed up to town, but when I arrived I found hiiven to show that at half-past two in theAlbe huddled up in a doorway Thinking him intoxicated, he tried to rouse him, but could not A doctor as called pronounced that he was suffering froe's Hospital in an aation showed a small scratch on the palm of the hand That scratch had been produced by a pin or a needle which had been infected by one of the newly discovered poisons which, adive a post-mortem appearance of death from heart disease"