The person of whom I speak is a young girl, no relation of mine, scarcely a friend, save for the fact that I have been of service to her, and that she regards me as the only friend she has.
We live in the same block of buildings--have met as ships pass in the night.

She is a poor girl who has been working as a kind of secretary, but her employer has died suddenly, and she is now penniless and helpless." The Marquess started to his feet and paced the room again.
"I feel as if I were in a dream, a nightmare," he said.

"Here are you, suddenly springing to life, poor, almost destitute, and you come to me, not asking for all that is yours by right, not even for money for yourself, but for someone, for some girl who is not even of your kith and kin, has no claim on you.

I always thought you mad, Wilfred, in the old days when we were boys together.

I still think you're mad.