The plain sincerity of his accent and of his gaze touched and convinced her.  She looked at her feet, white-shod on the crimson carpet.

‘Ah!’ she murmured, as if to herself, mournfully, ’why don’t you ask me how it is that I, to whom you pay thirty-six shillings a week, am wearing these clothes?  Surely you must think that an employe who—­’

‘At this hour you are not an employe,’ he interrupted here.  ’You visit me of your own free will to demand an explanation of matters which are quite foreign to our business relations.  I give it you.  Beyond that I permit myself no thoughts except such as any man is entitled to concerning any woman.  You used the word “plot” when you came in.  What did you refer to?  If Mr. Tudor has—­’ He could not proceed.

‘As I left Mr. Tudor’s flat a few minutes since,’ said Camilla quietly, producing a revolver from the folds of her cloak, ’I picked up this.  It may or may not be loaded.  Perhaps you can tell me.’

He seized the weapon, and impetuously aimed at a heavy Chinese gong across the room, and pulled the trigger several times.  The revolver spoke noisily, and the gong sounded and swung.

‘You see!’ he exclaimed.  ‘Pardon the din.  I did it without thinking.’

‘Did you call, sir?’ asked Simon Shawn, appearing in the doorway.

Hugo extirpated him with a look.

‘How cool you are!’ he resumed to Camilla, and laid down the revolver.  ’No, you aren’t!  By Jove, you aren’t!  What is it?  What have you been through?  What is this plot?  A plot—­in my building—­and against you!  Tell me everything—­everything!  I insist.’

‘Shall you believe all that I say?’ she ventured.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘all.’

He saw with intense joy that he was going to be friendly with her.  It seemed too good to be true.

CHAPTER V

A STORY AND A DISAPPEARANCE

‘Perhaps I ought to begin by informing you,’ said Camilla Payne, ’that I have known Mr. Francis Tudor for about two years.  Always he has been very nice to me.  Once he asked me to marry him—­quite suddenly—­it was a year ago.  I refused because I didn’t care for him.  I then saw nothing of him for some time.  But after I entered your service here, he came across me again by accident.  I did not know until lately that he had one of your flats.  He was very careful, very polite, timid, cautious—­but very obstinate, too.  He invited me to call on him at his rooms, and to bring any friends I liked.  Of course, it was a stupidity on his part, but, then, what else could he do?  A man who wants to cultivate relations with a homeless shopgirl is rather awkwardly fixed.’

‘I wish to Heaven you would not talk like that, Miss Payne!’ said Hugo, interrupting her impatiently.

’I am merely telling you these things so that you may understand my position,’ Camilla coldly replied.  ’Do you imagine that I am amusing myself?’