The lawyer shrugged his shoulders.

“There was nobody to put Mr. Brown wise to the fact that Mrs. Vandemeyer meant to betray him.  Nevertheless, Mrs. Vandemeyer died without speaking.”

Julius was silenced for once, and Sir James added on a lighter note: 

“I only want to put you on your guard.  Good-bye, and good luck.  Take no unnecessary risks once the papers are in your hands.  If there is any reason to believe that you have been shadowed, destroy them at once.  Good luck to you.  The game is in your hands now.”  He shook hands with them both.

Ten minutes later the two young men were seated in a first-class carriage en route for Chester.

For a long time neither of them spoke.  When at length Julius broke the silence, it was with a totally unexpected remark.

“Say,” he observed thoughtfully, “did you ever make a darned fool of yourself over a girl’s face?”

Tommy, after a moment’s astonishment, searched his mind.

“Can’t say I have,” he replied at last.  “Not that I can recollect, anyhow.  Why?”

“Because for the last two months I’ve been making a sentimental idiot of myself over Jane!  First moment I clapped eyes on her photograph my heart did all the usual stunts you read about in novels.  I guess I’m ashamed to admit it, but I came over here determined to find her and fix it all up, and take her back as Mrs. Julius P. Hersheimmer!”

“Oh!” said Tommy, amazed.

Julius uncrossed his legs brusquely and continued: 

“Just shows what an almighty fool a man can make of himself!  One look at the girl in the flesh, and I was cured!”

Feeling more tongue-tied than ever, Tommy ejaculated “Oh!” again.

“No disparagement to Jane, mind you,” continued the other.  “She’s a real nice girl, and some fellow will fall in love with her right away.”

“I thought her a very good-looking girl,” said Tommy, finding his tongue.

“Sure she is.  But she’s not like her photo one bit.  At least I suppose she is in a way—­must be—­because I recognized her right off.  If I’d seen her in a crowd I’d have said ’There’s a girl whose face I know’ right away without any hesitation.  But there was something about that photo”—­Julius shook his head, and heaved a sigh—­“I guess romance is a mighty queer thing!”

“It must be,” said Tommy coldly, “if you can come over here in love with one girl, and propose to another within a fortnight.”

Julius had the grace to look discomposed.

“Well, you see, I’d got a sort of tired feeling that I’d never find Jane—­and that it was all plumb foolishness anyway.  And then—­oh, well, the French, for instance, are much more sensible in the way they look at things.  They keep romance and marriage apart——­”

Tommy flushed.

“Well, I’m damned!  If that’s——­”

Julius hastened to interrupt.