ther word to her I crossed the threshold and stood in Czerny's very
dwelling-house. Thereafter, I was in a vast hall, in a beautiful place
for all the world like a temple; with a gallery running round about it,
and lamps swinging from the gallery, and an organ built high up in a
niche above the far end, and doors of teak giving off all round, and a
great oak fire-place such as you see in English houses; and all round
the dome of this wonderful room great brass-bound windows, upon which
the sea thundered and the foam sprayed. Softly lighted, carpeted with
mats of rare straw, furnished as any mansion of the rich, it seemed to
me, I do confess, a very wonder of the earth that such a place should
lie beneath the breakers of the Pacific Ocean. And yet there it was
before my eyes, and I could hear the sea-song high above me, and the
lamps shone upon my face; and, as though to tell me truly that here my
journey ended, whom should I espy at the door of one of the rooms but
little Ruth Bellenden herself, the woman I had crossed the world to
serve.

CHAPTER XVII

IN WHICH JASPER BEGG ENTERS THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA

I drew back into a patch of shadow and waited for her to come up to me.
Others might be with her and the moment inopportune for our encounter.
She walked with slow steps. Care had written its story upon her sweet
face. I saw that she was alone, and I put out my hand and touched her
upon the arm.

"Miss Ruth," said I, so soft that I wonder she heard me--"Miss Ruth,
it's Jasper Begg. Don't you know me?"

She turned swiftly, but did not cry out. One wild look she cast about
the half, with one swift glance she made sure of every door, and then,
and only then, she answered me.

"Jasper, Jasper! Is it really Jasper Begg?" she cried, with a look of
joy and gratitude I never shall forget.

Now, she had asked a woman's natural question; but I shall always say
that there never were wits quicker than Ruth Bellenden's; and hardly
were the useless words out of her mouth than she drew back to the room
she had left; and when I had entered it after her she closed the door
and listened a little while for any sounds. When none came to trouble
her she advanced a step, and so we two stood face to face at last, in
as pretty a place as all London, or all Europe for that matter, could
show you.

Let me try to picture that scene for you as it comes to me when I write
of it and seek to bring it back to my memory. A trim, well-kept