go back to the Hand of God; there were some there who did not want
him--whom he did not want. Westray would not be home, or, if he were,
Westray would know that he had been drinking; he could not bear that
they should see that he had been drinking again.

And then there came into his mind another thought: he would go to the
church, the water-engine should blow for him, and he would play himself
sober. Stay, _should_ he go to the church--the great church of Saint
Sepulchre alone? Would he be alone there? If he thought that he would
be alone, he would feel more secure; but might there not be someone else
there, or something else? He gave a little shiver, but the drink was in
his veins; he laughed pot-valiantly, and turned up an alley towards the
centre tower, that loomed dark in the wet, misty whiteness of the cloud
screened moon.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Westray returned to Cullerne by the evening train. It was near ten
o'clock, and he was finishing his supper, when someone tapped at the
door, and Miss Euphemia Joliffe came in.

"I beg your pardon for interrupting you, sir," she said; "I am a little
anxious about Mr Sharnall. He was not in at teatime, and has not come
back since. I thought you might know perhaps where he was. It is years
since he has been out so late in the evening."

"I haven't the least idea where he is," Westray said rather testily, for
he was tired with a long day's work. "I suppose he has gone out
somewhere to supper."

"No one ever asks Mr Sharnall out. I do not think he can be gone out
to supper."

"Oh, well, I dare say he will turn up in due course; let me hear before
you go to bed if he has come back;" and he poured himself out another
cup of tea, for he was one of those thin-blooded and old-womanly men who
elevate the drinking of tea instead of other liquids into a special
merit. "He could not understand," he said, "why everybody did not drink
tea. It was so much more refreshing--one could work so much better
after drinking tea."

He turned to some calculations for the section of a tie-rod, with which
Sir George Farquhar had at last consented to strengthen the south side
of the tower, and did not notice how time passed till there came another
irritating tap, and his landlady reappeared.

"It is nearly twelve o'clock," she said, "and we have seen nothing of
Mr Sharnall. I am so alarmed! I am sure I am very sorry to trouble
you, Mr Westray, but my niece and I are so alar