“Has she guessed any other of the parties implicated?” Mr. Brown asked anxiously.

“I’m certain she has not.”

“Is she likely to raise a row to-morrow?”

“I hardly see how she can.”

“All the same, we’d better do something to quiet her,” returned Mr. Brown meaningly.

Blake flashed a quick look at the other.

“See here—I’ll not have her touched!”

Mr. Brown’s scanty eyebrows lifted.

“Hello! You seem very tender about her!”

Blake looked at him sternly a moment. Then he said stiffly: “I once asked Miss West to marry me.”