cester, and so this made an excellent excuse for him
to get away for the day. Enid was going to drive Sir Arthur and Sir
Reginald over to the Retreat, so he ordered the dogcart to take him to
Kidderminster, whence he took train for Worcester.

He knew enough of Dora's circumstances with regard to her parents to
recognise the imprudence of calling upon her without notice, and so he
lunched at the Mitre Hotel, and sent a messenger with a note asking her
to meet him at three o'clock on the River Walk. The messenger was
instructed to wait for an answer if Miss Murray was in.

Miss Murray was in, and when she read the note her first notion was that
Garthorne had by some means got an inkling of the truth, or, at the
least, had discovered that she was in communication with Sir Arthur
Maxwell and wished to know the reason. She made up her mind at once to
hold her tongue on both subjects, but at the same time, she felt that it
would hardly be wise to refuse to meet him. It must also be admitted
that she also was possessed by a pardonable, because feminine, curiosity
as to what he wanted with her. She felt, however, that in such a place
as Worcester it would be most imprudent for her to meet a man so well
known in the County as Reginald Garthorne on one of the public
thoroughfares, and so she wrote her answer as follows:--

"DEAR MR. GARTHORNE,

"I have no idea why you should wish to see me, and I do not think
that it would be prudent to meet you as you suggest. You know how I
am situated here, and so I think it would be best, if you really
must speak to me, as you say, for you to come and see me here, not
under your own name, of course, as that is much too well known. I
would therefore suggest that you should call yourself Mr. Johnson,
and I will say that you are a representative of one of the big
millinery houses in London, and that you have come to see me on
business. I shall wait in for you till three.

"Yours sincerely,
"DORA MURRAY."

Garthorne saw the wisdom of this suggestion, and "Mr. Johnson" announced
himself at half past two. Dora received him alone in a little back
sitting-room, but his reception was not altogether encouraging, for when
he held out his hand and said "Good afternoon, Dora!" she flushed a
little, and affecting not to see his hand, she said:

"Miss Murray, if you please, Mr. Garthorne, now and for the future. You
seem to have forgotten