kissed me and hugged me at the first convenient opportunity after
her arrival at "Crow's Nest"!

And her own echoing genius swiftly accepted this magnificent
apotheosis of her Cornish husband. I became a new man in her eyes
also. With that marvellous power of make-believe, possible only to
women of supreme genius, she swiftly conceived of me as something
altogether different from Michael Pendean--a creature richer and
rarer--and this effort of imagination enabled us both to create that
solid appearance of a new and quickening understanding that so amply
sufficed to deceive Bendigo Redmayne and delude Brendon.

It is impossible to exaggerate the unique entertainment we derived
from this phase of our deception. We proposed to let six months pass
before the death of Bendigo Redmayne, and we were already
contemplating details and considering how best to bring his brother
back upon the stage for the purpose of Ben's destruction, when Mark
Brendon blundered in upon us once again. He came very pat with calf
love in his eyes; and it seemed that he might well assist us once
more and apply his limited attainments to the problem of our sea
wolf's approaching exit. Because we knew our Marco well, by this
time, and perceived how useful he might be in disseminating that
atmosphere of reality so desirable in cases such as these.

We were called upon to act quickly--so quickly that the first steps
were taken before the last had been fully planned; but the place,
the time of long, dark nights and other circumstances--these all
lent value and assistance to the acute operations now undertaken. I
swiftly brought Robert Redmayne to life; and though, with more
leisure for refinements, I should not have clothed him in his old