“Well, I am not Douglas Romilly, anyway,” Philip announced.

She looked up at him almost for the first time since her entrance.

“I kind of thought you were,” she admitted.  “I might have saved my lies, then.”

He shook his head.

“You have probably saved me from more than you know of,” he replied.  “I am not Douglas Romilly, but—­”

“You’re not Merton Ware, either,” she interrupted.

“Quite right,” he agreed.  “I started life as Philip Merton Ware the day I took these rooms, and if the time should come,” he went on, “that any one seriously set about the task of finding out exactly who I was before I was Merton Ware, you and I might as well take that little journey—­was it to the Hudson, you said, on a foggy morning?—­together.”

They sat in complete silence for several moments, Then she threw the end of her cigarette into the fire.

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t lie for nothing,” she declared.  “I didn’t quite tumble to the Douglas Romilly stunt, though.  They say he has left his business bankrupt in England and brought a fortune out here.  You don’t look as though you were overdone with it.”

“I certainly haven’t the fortune that Douglas Romilly is supposed to have got away with,” he said quietly.  “I have enough money for my present needs, though—­enough, by-the-by, to pay you for this typing,” he added, counting out the money upon the table.

“Any more stuff ready?”

“With luck there’ll be some this afternoon,” he promised her.  “I had a bad night last night, but I think I’ll be able to work later in the day.”

She looked at him curiously, at his face, absolutely devoid of colour, his eyes, restless and overbright, his long, twitching fingers.

“Bad conscience or drugs?” she asked.

“Bad conscience,” he acknowledged.  “I’ve been where you have been—­Miss Grimes.  I looked over the edge and I jumped.  I’d stay where you are, if I were you.”

“Maybe I shall, maybe I shan’t,” she replied doggedly.  “Stella wants to bring a boy around to see me.  ‘You bring him,’ I said.  ’I’ll talk to him.’  Then she got a little confused.  Stella’s kind, in her way.  She came back after Mr. Martin had gone down the passage.  ‘See here, kid,’ she said, ’you know as well as I do I can’t bring any one round to see you while you are sitting around in those rags.  Let me lend you—­’ Well, I stopped her short at that.  ‘My own plumes or none at all,’ I told her, ‘and I’d just as soon he didn’t come, anyway.’”

“You’re a queer girl,” Philip exclaimed.  “Where’s your father to-day?”

“Usual place,” she answered,—­“in bed.  He never gets up till five.”

“Let me order lunch up here for both of us, from the restaurant,” he suggested.

She shook her head.

“No, thanks!”

“Why not?” he persisted.

“I’m going round to the office to see if I can get any extra work.”