"I--I drank myself to sleep last night, Miss Bell.

When the candle flickered out I thought that it was all over--curious sensation.

This morning," he added, looking through his half-closed eyelashes with sardonic stage effect, "I wished it had been." "Tell me," Elfrida insisted gently; and looking attentively at his long, thin fingers Mr.Ticke then told her.

He told her tersely, it did not take long; and in the end he doubled up his hand and pulled a crumpled cuff down over it.

"To me," he said, "a thing like that represents the worst of it.