“Indeed!  Why?”

“Largely, I imagine, because I am privileged to know you much better.  That naturally makes a difference.”

“Does it indeed?  You imply then an increased interest in myself as an individual brings with it a greater desire to serve me?”

“Assuredly, yes.”

“Then you render my task doubly hard,” she said soberly, yet with a certain hardness in the tone.  “I had not suspected any personal side whatever.  You were a total stranger to me, Captain West, and I employed you in this matter merely in a business way, as—­as—­a detective.  Surely you understood this clearly?”

“In a measure that is quite true,” feeling the sharp sting of her words.  “Yet the comparison is hardly fair, is it?  I am not a detective in the sense with which you employ the term.  No question of pay even has been discussed between us.  The appeal to my services was from an entirely different stand-point.  More, you even investigated rather carefully my social and financial standing before taking me into your confidence, or admitting me to your home.  Is this not true?”

“Undoubtedly.  I had reason to wish assurance in these matters.  I had to present you to my friends.”

“Yet this very knowledge of my social position placed me on a totally different plane from that of a detective picked up at some agency.  You knew I was not serving you for pay.”

“Did I?”

“I should hope you did,” his voice hardening slightly.

“But for what other end did you volunteer your services?”

“Perhaps that is not so easily explained.  It was a spirit of adventure which first led me to answer your advertisement, I presume.  At least, I can give it no other name.  Then, when we met, you appealed to me personally; I felt a desire to further our acquaintance and—­well, your story aroused my interest.”

“Is that all?”

“It might have been had not you chosen methods of procedure which led me to other thoughts.”

She laughed.

“Oh, I see!  All this has happened because I introduced you to the others as my fiance.  Why, that is positively funny.  Didn’t you know that was only a part of the game being played?”

“Yes,” he said, ignoring the humour of it, and feeling oddly sober, “I understood, and was playing, the same as you.  Only both of us, I think, forget an important fact.”

“What, please?”

“That we were young, socially on a level, and that you were an exceedingly charming young woman.”

She laughed again, yet this time with more restraint.

“That is quite ridiculous, Captain West.  Surely, you are not actually making love to me?”

“No, I am not.  I am merely facing the situation very frankly.  It would be useless for me to claim lack of interest in you.  From our very first meeting, you have appealed to me strongly—­more so than any other woman of my acquaintance.  Then, perhaps, the peculiarity of our relationship, with the trust you seemed to impose in me, tended to deepen that interest.  I confess I began to care for you—­as a woman.”