That he was in her mind when she drew the character of John Broderick there was no doubt possible.

No matter how she might evade the identification, he was convinced he was the hero of her book.

Why had she attacked him so bitterly?
At first, it occurred to him that blackmail might be her object; she might be going to ask for money as the price of future silence.

Yet it needed but a glance at her refined and modest demeanour to dispel that idea as absurd.

Then he remembered, too, that it was not she who had sought this interview, but himself.
No, she was no blackmailer.