inst Slyme, as if the latter had
forced himself upon them against their will.

'Damn him!' he thought. 'I wish I'd never brought him here at all!'

Ruth did not appear to him to be very happy about it either.

'Well?' he said at last. 'What do you think of him?'

'Oh, he'll be all right, I suppose.'

'For my part, I wish he wasn't coming,' Easton continued.

'That's just what I was thinking,' replied Ruth dejectedly. 'I don't
like him at all. I seemed to turn against him directly he came in the
door.'

'I've a good mind to back out of it, somehow, tomorrow,' exclaimed
Easton after another silence. 'I could tell him we've unexpectedly got
some friends coming to stay with us.'

'Yes,' said Ruth eagerly. 'It would be easy enough to make some excuse
or other.'

As this way of escape presented itself she felt as if a weight had been
lifted from her mind, but almost in the same instant she remembered the
reasons which had at first led them to think of letting the room, and
she added, disconsolately:

'It's foolish for us to go on like this, dear. We must let the room
and it might just as well be him as anyone else. We must make the best
of it, that's all.'

Easton stood with his back to the fire, staring gloomily at her.

'Yes, I suppose that's the right way to look at it,' he replied at
length. 'If we can't stand it, we'll give up the house and take a
couple of rooms, or a small flat--if we can get one.'

Ruth agreed, although neither alternative was very inviting. The
unwelcome alteration in their circumstances was after all not
altogether without its compensations, because from the moment of
arriving at this decision their love for each other seemed to be
renewed and intensified. They remembered with acute regret that
hitherto they had not always fully appreciated the happiness of that
exclusive companionship of which there now remained to them but one
week more. For once the present was esteemed at its proper value,
being invested with some of the glamour which almost always envelops
the past.

Chapter 13

Penal Servitude and Death

On Tuesday--the day after his interview with Rushton--Owen remained at
home working at the drawings. He did not get them finished, but they
were so far advanced that he thought he would be able to complete them
after tea on Wednesday evening. He did not go to work until after
breakfast on Wednesday and his continued absence served to confirm the
opinio