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"Whether I a anyone who has been of service to me," was her stubborn reply And with that the ation Department had to be content

Even then, Dorise was not quite certain whether she had ed the man who loved her so well, but as beneath a cloud She had acted hastily in writing that letter, she felt Yet she had successfully warned him of his peril, and he had been able to extricate himself from the net spread for him

It was evident that The Sparroas her friend and Hugh's, was a most elusive person

She recollected the White Cavalier at the ball at Nice, and how she had never suspected hi of the Underworld--the loved

Within half an hour of the departure of her visitor from Scotland Yard, the maid announced Mr Sherrard

Dorise, with a frown, arose from her chair, and a few seconds later faced the man as her mother's intimate friend, and who daily forced his unwelcome attentions upon her

"Your mother told me you would be alone, Dorise," he said in his forced ance "So I just dropped in I hope I'irl, sealing a letter which she had just written "Mother has gone to Warwickshire, and I'e, an old schoolfellow oflover of Lady Ranscomb's choice He was one of those over-dressed fops who haunted the lounges of the Ritz and the Carlton, and who scraped acquaintance with anybody with a title At tea parties he would refer to Lord This and Lady That as intimate friends, whereas he had only been introduced to them by some fat wife of a fatter profiteer

Sherrard saw that Dorise's attitude was one of hostility, but with his superior overbearing manner he pretended not to notice it

"You were not at Lady Oundle's the night before last," he re better to say "I went there specially to irl's reply "Such a lot of fearful old fogies go there"

"True, but a lot of your mother's friends are in her set"

"I know Butto her dances if she possibly can We had a good excuse to be away, as "

"Elise was there," he remarked

"And you danced with her, of course She's such a ripping dancer"