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288 one requires to know him some time. It is less than a fortnight, monsieur, since I first saw you."

"Pardon me," he remarked with a sneer. "You forget. We met in Jacob's shop, when you commissioned him to buy Baring's picture."

It all flashed upon her. This, then, was how he had possessed himself of her secret.

"Indeed?" she said, after a moment's pause, which she employed in reflecting how she could continue to fence with this dangerous adversary without exasperating him. "You will hardly call that an acquaintance, however. It reminds me that you said just now you were willing to make any sacrifice I might ask. May I claim one—a very small one—at your hands? It is that you will be silent—absolutely silent—as to that transaction."

He laughed aloud, and, at the same time, threw away the end of his cigar.

"As I said the other day, it is nice to have a secret with you. But who supplies you with money? Tell me that."

"I have some means of my own—more than Mr. Baring or his sister believe. If I choose to live as I do, that is my own affair. I have my own reasons for wishing to remain obscure, unknown, to all appearance poor. Now that I have told you the simple truth, you will understand that I had no need to get the money from any one."

"This, then, is the reason you reject my offer—because you have money of your own?"

"It is not the reason. The reason is what I have told you. But it prevents there being any merit in my doing