you as I wished, but there
was no reason why I should not watch over you. How's Mark?"

"Getting better," said Janet, drawing a breath of relief at her
companion's sudden change in the conversation; for she felt that had he
continued in that same sad reproachful strain she must have hung upon
his arm, and sobbed and thanked him for his chivalrous conduct. There
was something, too, so sweet in the feeling that he must love her very
dearly in spite of all the rebuffs he had received; and somehow as they
walked on, a gleam of sunny yellow came through the misty greys and
dingy drabs with which from her mental colour-box she had been tingeing
her future life. There was even a dash of ultramarine, too--a brighter
blue than her eyes--and her heart began to beat quite another tune.

"May I come and walk home with you every night?" said Hendon at last,
as, after repeated assurances that she was not hurt, they stopped at
last at the street door.

"No," she said decidedly; and her little lips were tightly compressed,
so that they should not give vent to a sob.

"How cruel you are, Janet!"

"For trying to do what is right," she said firmly. "What would your
sister say if, after all that has passed, I were to be so weak?"

"May I follow you at a distance, as I have done all this time?" he
pleaded.

"No. You have only frightened me almost to death," she replied. "Will
you come up and see poor Mark?"

"Not to-night," he said bitterly; "I couldn't bear it now. Janet, if I
go to the bad, it won't be all my fault. I know I'm a weak fellow, but
with something to act as ballast, I should be all right. What have I
done that you should be so cold?"

For answer, Janet held out her hand.

"Good-night, Mr Chartley," she said quietly; but he did not take the
hand, only turned away, walking rapidly along the street, while,
fighting hard to keep from bursting into a violent fit of sobbing, Janet
hurried up to her room, to find her brother looking haggard and wild as
he slowly paced the floor.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

MARK HEATH IN THE DARK.

"No--no--no!" Always the same determined answer to the declarations of
Janet that some steps should be taken to investigate the affairs of the
night on which her brother had first reached London.

"No," he said; "I will have nothing done. Let me get well, and away
from here. I've escaped with my life."

"And what will you do, Mark?" asked Janet, as she sat by his side.

"Try ag