y?"

"Try me," said Dunn again, and then, making his voice as low and hoarse
as was Dunn's, he asked:

"Is it Clive?"

"Later--perhaps," answered Deede Dawson. "There's some one else--first.
Are you ready?"

"Try me," said Dunn for the third time, and as he spoke his quick ear
caught the faint sound of a retreating footstep, and he told himself
that Ella must have lingered near and had perhaps heard all they said.

"Try me," he said once more, speaking more loudly and clearly this time.

CHAPTER XIV. LOVE-MAKING AT NIGHT

Dunn went to his room that night with the feeling that a crisis was
approaching. And he wished very greatly that he knew how much Ella had
overheard of his talk with her stepfather, and what interpretation she
had put upon it.

He determined that in the morning he would take the very first
opportunity he could find of speaking to her.

But in the morning it appeared that Mrs. Dawson had had a bad night, and
was very unwell, and Ella hardly stirred from her side all day.

Even when Clive called in the afternoon she would not come down, but
sent instead a message begging to be excused because of her mother's
indisposition, and Dunn, from a secure spot in the garden, watched the
young man retire, looking very disconsolate.

This day, too, Dunn saw nothing of Deede Dawson, for that gentleman
immediately after breakfast disappeared without saying anything to
anybody, and by night had still not returned.

Dunn therefore was left entirely to himself, and to him the day seemed
one of the longest he had ever spent.

That Ella remained so persistently with her mother troubled him a good
deal, for he did not think such close seclusion on her part could be
really necessary.

He was inclined to fear that Ella had overheard enough of what had
passed between him and Deede Dawson to rouse her mistrust, and that she
was therefore deliberately keeping out of his way.

Then too, he was troubled in another fashion by Deede Dawson's absence,
for he was afraid it might mean that plans were being prepared, or
possibly action being taken, that might mature disastrously before he
himself was ready to act.

All day this feeling of unrest and apprehension continued, and at
night when he went upstairs to bed it was stronger than ever. He felt
convinced now that Ella was deliberately avoiding him. But then, if
she distrusted him, that must be because she feared he was on her
stepfather's side, and if it