Westerham assisted Mme. Estelle to alight. She asked him to ring the bell, which he did, and a second later the garden door opened by some unseen agency.
When she had stepped into the garden, Mme. Estelle beckoned to Westerham to follow her, and he stepped into the garden and stood beside her.
She closed the door to, glanced over her shoulder to see that she was not observed, and then caught Westerham by the coat.
“Sir Paul,” she cried in a low voice, “you are a young man. Do not destroy your life for a piece of folly. Cut yourself adrift from this while there is still time.”
Westerham took her hand and looked at her kindly. “Thank you,” he said; “thank you very much. But I am not only moved by folly to go on with this business. Some day I may explain to you. I do not know that I particularly care for going on, but there is no drawing back now.”
Westerham made his way back to Walter's in a slightly happier frame of mind. He liked to see his difficulties plain before him rather than to be hemmed about with mysteries that he could not understand. And difficulty seemed to be piling itself upon difficulty.
Much, of course, remained to be explained. He was not sure of the different parts which the weirdly associated people whom he had met that afternoon played in Melun's game. He could, however, make a guess, and his shrewd guess was not so wide of the mark.
Bagley, as he had learned from Melun, was the smug manager of a branch of a considerable banking firm. His wife, of course, explained herself. The young man Crow, with the large, cruel, red hands, was probably Melun's principal striking force in times of trouble. The captain himself, he imagined, furnished the brains, while Bagley supplied the finance.
But what of Mme. Estelle? That she had her part allotted to her in the strange drama unfolding itself Westerham could not doubt. But what part?
Some parts that he could conceive were almost too unpleasant to think of. Putting the thing at its best, he could not imagine that Mme. Estelle acted as less than a lure.
But what tie bound her to Melun? What tie kept her within the confines of this strange collection of human beings?
For a moment Westerham's heart grew light within him. It was possible that the tie was connected with Captain Melun. Was she his wife? If he could but establish that, then the captain's boast that he would marry Lady Kathleen was vain indeed.