She resumed her seat, taking her hand from the gong.

Without further pause she continued: 'Quite right! It has been Miss Rowly who paid your debts.

At first I had promised myself the pleasure; but from something in your speech and manner she thought it better that such an act should not be done by a woman in my position to a man in yours.

It might, if made public, have created quite a wrong impression in the minds of many of our friends.' There was something like a snort from Leonard.

She ignored it: 'So she paid the money herself out of her own fortune.