g in an instant.

"It's Mr. Errol, my lady,--the crippled one. Mr. Lucas, I think
his name is."

Anne turned then as sharply as though a voice had called her.

"Lucas Errol! Is he here? Ah, take me to him! Take me to him!"

And the old butler led her thankfully from the scene.

CHAPTER XXII

THE CITY OF REFUGE

The moment Lucas Errol's hand closed upon hers it was to Anne as if an
immense and suffocating weight had been lifted from her, and with it all
her remaining strength crumbled away as if her burden alone had
sustained her.

She looked at him, meeting the kind, searching eyes without effort,
trying piteously to speak, but her white lips only moved soundlessly, her
throat seemed paralysed.

"Her ladyship has had a shock, sir," explained Dimsdale.

"Won't you sit down?" said Lucas gently. In a moment she found herself
sitting on a sofa with this stanch friend of hers beside her, holding her
hand. A few words passed between him and Dimsdale, which she scarcely
heard and was too weak to comprehend, and then they were alone together,
she and Lucas in a silence she felt powerless to break.

"You mustn't mind me, Lady Carfax," he said. "I know what you have come
through. I understand."

Dimly she heard the words, but she could not respond to them. She
was shivering, shivering with a violence that she was utterly unable
to repress.

He did not speak again till Dimsdale came back with a tray, then again he
exchanged a few murmured sentences with the old butler, who presently
said, "Very good, sir," and went softly away.

Then Lucas turned again to Anne. "Drink this," he said. "It will
revive you."

She groped for the glass he held towards her, but trembled so much that
she could not take it.

"Let me," he said, and put it himself to her lips.

She drank slowly, shuddering, her teeth chattering against the glass.

"Lay your head down upon the cushion," he said then, "and shut your eyes.
You will be better soon."

"You--you won't go?" she managed to whisper.

"Why, no," he said. "It's for your sake I've come. I guess I'm a fixture
for so long as you want me."

She breathed a sigh of relief and lay back.

A long time passed. Anne lay motionless with closed eyes, too crushed for
thought. And Lucas Errol watched beside her, grave and patient and still.

Suddenly there came a sound, piercing the silence, a sound that made Anne
start upright in wild terror.

"What is it? What is it?"

Ins