Nevertheless, he read it carefully, and presently drawing a writing pad toward him, he began to note down excerpts from the diary.

There was the story, told in temperate language and with surprising mildness, of Odette Rider's rejection of Thornton Lyne's advances.

It was a curiously uninteresting record, until he came to a date following the release of Sam Stay from gaol, and here Thornton Lyne enlarged upon the subject of his "humiliation." "Stay is out of prison," the entry ran.

"It is pathetic to see how this man adores me.

I almost wish sometimes that I could keep him out of gaol; but if I did so, and converted him into a dull, respectable person, I should miss these delicious experiences which his worship affords.