and thought the matter over, until I decided on a
definite line of action. The upshot of it all was that I wrote this
note, and with my own hands bore it to her ladyship's house:

"Dear Lady Rollinson,--I am utterly at a loss to understand the
occurrences of yesterday and to-day. A moment's reflection will show you
that an explanation is absolutely due to me. It is my right to demand
it, and it is at once your duty and your right to give it."

Armed with this document I set out. The same perturbed domestic greeted
me with the formula to which I was by this time growing accustomed, and
when I instructed him to carry the note within doors and deliver it
to his mistress, he closed the door in my face and left me to await an
answer on the steps. The position was anything but comfortable. It was
a bright day, and a good many people were abroad, considering how
quiet the street generally was. I felt as if everybody who passed was
completely aware of my discomfiture. Not a nurse-maid went by with her
charge who did not, to my distempered fancy, know my business, and
look meaningly at me in appreciation of my position. By-and-by the door
opened, and the servant asked me to step inside. I had been cooling my
heels on the steps for full five minutes, and was by this time as
little self-possessed as I have ever been in my life. I followed the
man blindly into the familiar morning-room, and was there left alone for
another ten minutes. Anger was taking the place of bewilderment, and I
was striding rapidly up and down the room when Lady Rollinson entered.
The weather was still cold, but she carried a fan in her hand, and moved
it rapidly as she walked into the room and sank into a chair. I bowed
with a stiff inclination of the head, but she made no return to my
salute.

"I hope, Captain Fyffe," she said, "that you will make this interview
as brief as possible. It is likely to be painful to both of us, but you
have insisted on it. I do not see what purpose it can serve, but it is
just as well that you should understand that I am finally determined."

It was plainly to be seen that she was painfully agitated; and though
she had done her best to abolish the traces of the fact, I could see
that she had been crying.

"You are finally determined!" I echoed, and I dare say my manner was
foolish enough. "But what are you finally determined about?"

"I am finally determined," she responded, "that everything is over
between us; and unt