"None whatever," his companion assured him. "You did me the best turn
in your life when you left me stranded after Hellesfield."

Horlock sighed.

"Lethbridge almost insisted, he looked upon you as a firebrand. He said
there would be no repose about a Cabinet with you in it."

"Well, it's turned out for the best," Tallente remarked drily. "Au
revoir!"

On his way back to the reception rooms, an acquaintance tapped him on
the shoulder.

"One moment, Tallente. Lady Alice Mountgarron has asked me to present
you."

Tallente bowed before the woman who stood looking at him pleasantly, but
a little curiously. She held out her hand.

"I seem to have heard so much of you from my sister Jane," she said.
"You are neighbours in Devonshire, aren't you?"

"Neighbours from a Devon man's point of view," he answered. "I live
half-way down a precipice, and she five miles away, at the back of a
Stygian moor, and incidentally a thousand feet above me."

"You seem to have surmounted such geographical obstacles."