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 “Always have been since the dear old days of childhood, what!”

“I can trust you, can’t I?”

“Absolutely!”

“There’s something I want you to do for me, Reggie. You'll have to keep it a dead secret, of course.”

“The strong silent man! That’s me! What is it?”

“You're driving into town in your car this afternoon, aren’t you, to meet Percy?”

“That was the idea.”

“Could you go this morning instead, and take me?”

“Of course.”

Maud shook her head.

“You don’t know what you are letting yourself in for, Reggie, or I’m sure you wouldn’t agree so lightly. I’m not allowed to leave the castle, you know—because of what I was telling you about.”

“The Chappie?”

“Yes. So there would be terrible scenes if anybody found out.”

“Never mind, dear old soul. I'll risk it! None shall learn your secret from these lips!”

“You're a darling, Reggie!”

“But what’s the idea? Why do you want to go to-day particularly?”

Maud looked over her shoulder.

“Because”—she lowered her voice, though there was no one near—“because he is back in London! He’s a sort of secretary, you know, Reggie, to his uncle, and I saw in the paper this morning that the uncle returned yesterday after a long voyage in his yacht. So he must have come back too. He has to go everywhere his uncle goes.”

“And everywhere the uncle went, the Chappie was