“And you took him in?” she said slowly.  “You gave him a chance?  You helped him to redeem himself?  How good of you.”

“How good for me, you mean,” he laughed, “It was ’bread on the waters’ with a vengeance, Miss Lorne.  I should have lost my life last night but for that boy.”—­And told her briefly and airily how the thing had come to pass.

“Don’t think it vindictive of me, but I am sorry, I am very, very sorry you were not able to hand that dreadful woman, Margot, over to the authorities, Mr. Cleek,” she said, with an expression of great seriousness.  “She is not likely to forget or to forgive what you have done; and some day, perhaps ...  Oh, do be on your guard.  It was really foolhardy to have attempted the thing alone.  Surely you might have appealed for assistance to the Paris police and not only have minimised your personal risk but made sure of the woman’s arrest.”

“Not without allowing the authorities to learn exactly what the Baron de Carjorac was so anxious to keep them from learning, Miss Lorne.  They must have found out what I was after, what really had been lost, if I had applied to them for assistance.  I had either to do the thing alone or drop the case entirely.  And drop it I would not after you had asked me to accept it, and—­Pardon?  No, Miss Lorne, I do not know who the woman Margot really is.  Even that name may be fictitious, as was the one of ‘Comtesse de la Tour.’  I only know of her that she is one of the great figures of the Underworld; that money is her game—­money alone; money first, last, and all the time; that her personal history is as much of a mystery to her closest associates as was—­well, no matter; people of that ilk are not fit subjects to discuss with you.  All that I know of the woman is that she has travelled pretty well over the world; that some six or eight months ago she was in Ceylon with a—­er—­a certain member of her crew, and came within an ace of falling foul of the law.  She had put up a plan to loot the depository of the Pearl Fisheries Company at a period when there were thousands of pounds worth of gems awaiting transport.  With her usual luck she slipped out of the net and left the country before she could be arrested.  But she will have found something there that will repay her for the visit in one way or another.  Luck of that kind seems to follow her always.”

And a long time afterward he had reason to remember what he said.  For the present, however, he had banished from his mind all things but the happiness which was his to-day; and gave himself up to that happiness with his whole heart.

Not once did he again intrude anything that had to do with himself, his exploits, or his future upon Ailsa’s attention until all the voyage across the channel and all the journey from Dover up to London had come to an end; and even then, eager though he was to know how matters might shape themselves for her future—­he was tactful, considerate, careful not to force her into any embarrassing position or to claim from her more than the merest acquaintance might.