  The bright X-ray binary X2127+119 in the core of the globular cluster M15 has
long been thought to be in an unusual evolutionary state, in which the binary
is embedded in a common envelope. Support for this idea comes from X2127+119's
absorption lines, which are blue shifted at all orbital phases, indicating the
existence of outflows from the system. A common-envelope scenario implies that
the absorption lines should exhibit maximum blue shift near mid-eclipse (binary
phase 0.0). We have re-analysed INT spectra of X2127+119 obtained in 1986, 1987
and 1988 using the latest orbital ephemeris (substantially different from that
used in the original analysis), and find that the orbital phase at which the
absorption lines show a maximum blue shift is not 0.0, but rather 0.25 -- 0.3.
These results indicate that a common-envelope scenario for X2127+119 may not
work. In addition, from spectrograms of the He II 4686 line, we report the
first tentative detection of X2127+119's companion star.
