‘How thoughtful you always are for me!’

’It’s not much to do for a woman one likes.  But I’m sorry if I’ve brought too little.  Here it is, anyway.’

He produced a large and well-worn pocket-book, and took from it a small envelope, which he handed to her.

‘Tell me how much more you’ll need,’ he said, ’and I’ll give it to you to-morrow.  I’ll put the notes between the pages of a new book and leave it at your door.  He wouldn’t open a package that was addressed to you from a bookseller’s, would he?’

‘No,’ answered the lady, her expression changing a little, ’I think he draws the line at the bookseller.’

‘You see, this was meant for you,’ said Mr. Van Torp.  ’There are your initials on it.’

She glanced at the envelope, and saw that it was marked in pencil with the letters M.L. in one corner.

‘Thank you,’ she said, but she did not open it.

‘You’d better count the notes,’ suggested the millionaire.  ’I’m open to making mistakes myself.’

The lady took from the envelope a thin flat package of new Bank of England notes, folded together in four.  Without separating them she glanced carelessly at the first, which was for a hundred pounds, and then counted the others by the edges.  She counted four after the first, and Mr. Van Torp watched her face with evident amusement.

‘You need more than that, don’t you?’ he asked, when she had finished.

‘A little more, perhaps,’ she said quietly, though she could not quite conceal her disappointment, as she folded the notes and slipped them into the envelope again.  ’But I shall try to make this last.  Thank you very much.’

‘I like you,’ said Mr. Van Torp.  ’You’re the real thing.  They’d call you a chief’s daughter in the South Seas.  But I’m not so mean as all that.  I only thought you might need a little cash at once.  That’s all.’

A loud knocking at the outer door prevented the lady from answering.

She looked at Mr. Van Torp in surprise.

‘What’s that?’ she asked, rather anxiously.

‘I don’t know,’ he answered.  ’He couldn’t guess that you were here, could he?’

‘Oh no!  That’s quite out of the question!’

‘Then I’ll open the door,’ said the millionaire, and he left the sitting-room.

The lady had not risen, and she still leaned back in her seat.  She idly tapped the knuckles of her gloved hand with the small envelope.

The knocking was repeated, she heard the outer door opened, and the sound of voices followed directly.

‘Oh!’ Mr. Van Torp exclaimed in a tone of contemptuous surprise, ’it’s you, is it?  Well, I’m busy just now.  I can’t see you till to-morrow.’

‘My business will not keep till to-morrow,’ answered an oily voice in a slightly foreign accent.

At the very first syllables the lady rose quickly to her feet, and resting one hand on the table she leant forward in the direction of the door, with an expression that was at once eager and anxious, and yet quite fearless.