hough it was a poor, weak, back-boneless pride,
which would have melted at the first soft word from her sister.

The emigration concocted in the club window, however, effected what all
besides had failed to do. By the time the final arrangements were
complete and the tickets taken, Maud, on the eve of departure, was won
upon to come to Eaton Place, though she still declined to take up her
abode there.

Nor would she come alone.

"Val's with her," announced Sybil, having peeped from the balcony; "she
might have left him behind, I think. I did want to find out if I could,
what Maud really means by all this? Why _we_ are in disgrace, because
_she_ has behaved like an idiot?"

"We shall never discover that now;" said Sue,--and the event proved her
right.

Maud had taken the best and surest precaution against conversation of an
intimate nature. She had put on one of the smartest dresses of her
elaborate trousseau--having left it unpacked on purpose,--and her step
as she entered was that of a stranger on a foreign soil. She was
studiously polite; she inquired with a becoming air of solicitude after
their healths, and she looked kindly at Sue:--but a jest of Sybil's fell
flat, and Leo was conscious that her sister's lips never actually
touched her cheek.

Leo herself was trembling from head to foot.

"We have been rather anxious about dear Leo," said Sue, with a tender
glance towards the shrinking figure in the background.

"Indeed? There is a good deal of influenza about;" replied Maud
carelessly. Before anyone could rejoin she changed the subject. "They
tell us the weather look-out is favourable, and we ought to have a good
passage." She never once looked at Leo, nor spoke to her.

And she rose to go as soon as decency permitted. But though a good deal
was said about future home-comings, and Val declared that he for one
would never rest till he was back in Old England again, there was a
general feeling that the impending separation would prove if not
absolutely final, at least of long duration. Maud was evidently longing
to be off. Her voice as she hurried to the door was sharp and impatient.
She could scarcely wait for Val to make his adieux properly, and sprang
into the hansom while he was still in the hall.

Then she leaned forward and beckoned, and Leo ran out. Leo was yearning
for one little word, one kind look to prove her dreadful fears
unfounded, but, "It was not you I wanted," said Maud, rearing her chin