. Their breathing was all that could be heard, and it seemed to
fill the air as with the rustle of a gentle breeze. But it was hard to
look upon them and to think of their only earthly father in his cell.
With full hearts and dry throats the two women returned to a room below.

By this time the square, which before had only shown people standing in
doorways and lounging at street corners, was crowded with a noisy rabble.
They were shouting out indecent jokes about "monks," "his reverend
lordship," and "doctors of diwinity"; and a small gang of them had got a
rope which they were trying to throw as a lasso round a figure of the
Virgin in a niche over the porch. The figure came down at length amid
shrieks of delight, and when the police charged the mob they flung stones
which broke the church windows.

Again Glory felt an impulse to throw herself on the cowardly rabble, but
she only crouched at the window by the side of Mrs. Callender, and looked
down at the sea of faces below with their evil eyes and cruel mouths.

"Oh, what a thing it is to be a woman!" she moaned.

"Aye, lassie, aye, there's mair than one of us has felt that," said Mrs.
Callender.

Glory did not speak again as long as they knelt by the window, holding
each other's hands, but the tears that had sprung to her eyes at the
thought of her helplessness dried up of themselves, and in their place
came the light of a great resolution. She knew that her hour had struck
at last--that this was the beginning of the end.

The theatres were emptying and carriages were rolling away from them as
she drove home by way of the Strand. She saw her name on omnibuses and
her picture on boardings, and felt a sharp pang. But she was in a state
of feverish excitement and the pain was gone in a moment.

Another letter from Drake was waiting for her at the Inn:

"I feel, my dear Glory, that you are entirely justified in your silence,
but to show you how deep is my regret, I am about to put it in my power
to atone, as far as I can, for the conduct which has quite properly
troubled and hurt you. You will put me under an eternal obligation to you
if you will consent to become my wife. We should be friends as well as
lovers, Glory, and in an age distinguished for brilliant and beautiful
women, it would be the crown of my honour that my wife was above all a
woman of genius. Nothing should disturb the development of your gifts,
and if any social claims conflicted with them, th