"Perhaps I laid myself open to the thrust; but have you any right to assume I have never followed a commendable profession ?" No answer was immediately forthcoming, but Winston did wisely when, in place of waiting, he turned to Miss Barrington.

He had left her niece irritated, but the trace of anger she felt was likely to enhance her interest.

The meal, however, was a trial to him, for he had during eight long years lived for the most part apart from all his kind, a lonely toiler, and now was constrained to personate a man known to be almost dangerously skillful with his tongue.

At first sight the task appeared almost insuperably difficult, but Winston was a clever man, and felt all the thrill of one playing a risky game just then.

Perhaps it was due to excitement that a readiness he had never fancied himself capable of came to him in his need, and, when at last the ladies rose, he felt that he had not slipped perilously.