ke me out and buy me a dress and
hat. You can tell Arthur directly you write to him. I don't mind
that, for sometimes I do feel ashamed--I did the other night to
have you sit with me there, and to feel that I was dressed so very
differently from all of them."

He laughed reassuringly.

"I don't think men notice those things. To me you seemed just as
you should seem. I only know that I was glad enough to be there
with you."

"Were you?"--rather wistfully.

"Of course I was. Now I am going, but before I go, don't forget
Monday afternoon. We'll have lunch and then go to your brother's
rooms."

She glanced at the clock.

"Is it really so late?" she asked.

"It is. Don't you notice how quiet it is outside?"

They stood hand in hand for a moment. A strange silence seemed to
have fallen upon the streets. Laverick was suddenly conscious of
something which he had never felt when Mademoiselle Idiale had
smiled upon him--a quickening of the pulses, a sense of gathering
excitement which almost took his breath away. His eyes were fixed
upon hers, and he seemed to see the reflection of that same wave
of feeling in her own expressive face. Her lips trembled, her eyes
were deeper and softer than ever. They seemed to be asking him a
question, asking and asking till every fibre of his body was
concentrated in the desperate effort with, which he kept her at
arm's length.

"Is it so very late?" she whispered, coming just a little closer,
so that she was indeed almost within the shelter of his arms.

He clutched her hands almost roughly and raised them to his lips.

"Much too late for me to stay here, child," he said, and his voice
even to himself sounded hard and unnatural.

"Run along to bed. To-morrow night--to-morrow night, then, I will
fetch you. Good-bye!"

He let himself out. He did not even look behind to the spot where
he had left her. He closed the front door and walked with swift,
almost savage footsteps down the quiet Street, across the Square,
and into New Oxford Street. Here he seemed to breathe more freely.
He called a hansom and drove to his rooms.

The hall-porter had left his post in the front hall, and there was
no one to inform Laverick that a visitor was awaiting him. When he
entered his sitting-room, however, he gave a little start of surprise.
Mr. James Shepherd was reclining in his easy-chair with his hands
upon his knees--Mr. James Shepherd with his face more pasty even
than us