CHAPTER II.
"They have their exits and their entrances." _As You Like It_.
The ten o'clock express from Euston to Scotland was tearing along on its daily journey.

It was that barren hour in the afternoon when luncheon is over and forgotten, and tea is yet far distant, and most of the passengers were either asleep or listlessly trying to read light literature.
Alone in a first-class carriage sat Bella Bathgate's lodger--Miss Pamela Reston.

A dressing-bag and a fur-coat and a pile of books and magazines lay on the opposite seat, and the lodger sat writing busily.

An envelope lay beside her addressed to THE LORD BIDBOROUGH, c/o KING, KING, & Co., BOMBAY.
The letter ran: "DEAR BIDDY,--We have always agreed, you and I (forgive the abruptness of this beginning), that we would each live our own life.

Your idea of living was to range over the world in search of sport, mine to amuse myself well, to shine, to be admired.