“Give me a little brandy,” he said, “or rather a good deal of brandy.  I need it.”

The Princess felt her own hand shake.  She brought him a tumbler and sat down by his side.

“You had to kill him?” she asked, in a whisper.  “Is it that?”

Forrest set down his glass—­empty.

“No!” he answered.  “We were going to, when a mad woman who lives there got into the place and found us out.  We had them safe, the two of them, when the worst thing happened which could have befallen us.  Andrew de la Borne broke in upon us.”

The Princess listened with set face.

“Go on,” she said.  “What happened?”

“The game was up so far as we were concerned,” he answered.  “Cecil crumpled up before his brother, and gave the whole show away.  There was nothing left for me to do but to wait and hear what they had to say, before I decided whether or no to make my graceful exit from the stage.”

“Go on,” she commanded.  “What happened exactly?”

“We were kept there,” he continued, “until this morning, waiting until Engleton was well enough to make up his mind what to do.  The end is simple enough.  Considering that but for that girl’s intervention Engleton would have been in the sea by now, and he knows it, I suppose it might have been worse.  I have signed a paper undertaking to leave England within forty-eight hours, and never to show myself in this country again.  Further, I am not to play cards at any time with any Englishman.”

“Is that all?” the Princess asked.

“Yes!” Forrest answered.  “I suppose you would say that they have let me off lightly.  I wish I could feel so.  If ever a man was sick of those dirty disreputable foreign places, where one holds on to life and respectability only with the tips of one’s fingernails, I am.  I think I shall chuck it, Ena.  I am tired of those foreign crowds, suspicious, semi-disreputable.  There’s something wrong with every one of them.  Even the few decent ones you know very well speak to you because you are in a foreign country, and would cut you in Pall Mall.”

“It isn’t so bad as that,” the Princess said calmly.  “There are some of the places worth living in.  You must live a quieter life, spend less, and find distractions.  You used to be so fond of shooting and golf.”

He laughed hardly.

“How am I to live,” he demanded, “away from the card-tables?  What do you suppose my income is?  A blank!  It is worse than a blank, for I owe bills which I shall never pay.  How am I going to live from day to day unless I go on the same infernal treadmill.  I am an adventurer, I know,” he went on, “but what is one to do who has the tastes and education of a gentleman, and not even money enough to buy a farm and work with one’s hands for a living?”

The Princess moved to the window and back again.

“I, too, Nigel,” she said, “have had shocks.  Jeanne has come back.  She has been at Salthouse all the time.”