“Don’t you dare to speak of arts in connection with my wife,” broke in the man roughly.  “She is no coquette, and I trust her—­”

“So long as Silver looks after her,” finished Miss Greeby contemptuously.  “What chivalrous confidence.  Well, I must be going.  Any message to your—­”

“No!  No!  No!” broke in Pine once more.  “She is not to know that I am here, or anything about my true position and name.  You promised, and you will keep your promise.  But there, I know that you will, as self-interest will make you.”

“Ah, now you talk common sense.  It is a pity you don’t bring it to bear in the case of Silver, whom you trust because you have benefited him.  Good-day, you very unsophisticated person.  I shall see you again—­”

“In London as Hubert Pine,” said the millionaire abruptly, and Miss Greeby, with a good-humored shrug, marched away, swinging her stick and whistling gayly.  She was very well satisfied with the knowledge she had obtained, as the chances were that it would prove useful should Lambert still hanker after the unattainable woman.  Miss Greeby had lulled Pine’s suspicions regarding the young man’s love for Agnes, but she knew in her heart that she had only done so by telling a pack of miserable lies.  Now, as she walked back to The Manor, she reflected that by using her secret information dexterously, she might improve such falsehood into tolerable truth.

Pine flung himself down again when she departed, and coughed in his usual violent manner.  His throat and lungs ached, and his brow was wet with perspiration.  With his elbows on his knees and his face between his hands, he sat miserably thinking over his troubles.  There was no chance of his living more than a few years, as the best doctors in Europe and England had given him up, and when he was placed below ground, the chances were that Agnes would marry his rival.  He had made things as safe as was possible against such a contingency, but who knew if her love for Lambert might not make her willing to surrender the millions.  “Unless Garvington can manage to arouse her family pride,” groaned Pine drearily.  “She sacrificed herself before for that, and perhaps she will do so again.  But who knows?” And he could find no answer to this question, since it is impossible for any man to say what a woman will do where her deepest emotions are concerned.

A touch on Pine’s shoulder made him leap to his feet with the alertness of a wild animal on the lookout for danger.  By his side stood Chaldea, and her eyes glittered, as she came to the point of explanation without any preamble.  The girl was painfully direct.  “I have heard every word,” she said triumphantly.  “And I know what you are, brother.”

“Why did you come here?” demanded Pine sharply, and frowning.

“I wanted to hear what a Romany had to do with a Gorgio lady, brother.  And what do I hear.  Why, that you dwell in the Gentile houses, and take a Gentile name, and cheat in a Gentile manner, and have wed with a Gentile romi.  Speaking Romanly, brother, it is not well.”