now you do know it, what is
there to alarm you?" he asked.

(There was enough to alarm the boldest woman living--in such a position,
and with such a temperament as hers. To her mind the personation of
Grace Roseberry had suddenly assumed a new aspect: the aspect of a
fatality. It had led her blindfold to the house in which she and the
preacher at the Refuge were to meet. He was coming--the man who had
reached her inmost heart, who had influenced her whole life! Was the day
of reckoning coming with him?)

"Don't notice me," she said, faintly. "I have been ill all the morning.
You saw it yourself when you came in here; even the sound of your voice
alarmed me. I shall be better directly. I am afraid I startled you?"

"My dear Grace, it almost looked as if you were terrified at the sound
of Julian's name! He is a public celebrity, I know; and I have seen
ladies start and stare at him when he entered a room. But _you_ looked
perfectly panic-stricken."

She rallied her courage by a desperate effort; she laughed--a harsh,
uneasy laugh--and stopped him by putting her hand over his mouth.
"Absurd!" she said, lightly. "As if Mr. Julian Gray had anything to do
with my looks! I am better already. See for yourself!" She looked round
at him again with a ghastly gayety; and returned, with a desperate
assumption of indifference, to the subject of Lady Janet's nephew. "Of
course I have heard of him," she said. "Do you know that he is expected
here to-day? Don't stand there behind me--it's so hard to talk to you.
Come and sit down."

He obeyed--but she had not quite satisfied him yet. His face had not
lost its expression of anxiety and surprise. She persisted in playing
her part, determined to set at rest in him any possible suspicion that
she had reasons of her own for being afraid of Julian Gray. "Tell me
about this famous man of yours," she said, putting her arm familiarly
through his arm. "What is he like?"

The caressing action and the easy tone had their effect on Horace. His
face began to clear; he answered her lightly on his side.

"Prepare yourself to meet the most unclerical of clergymen," he said.
"Julian is a lost sheep among the parsons, and a thorn in the side of
his bishop. Preaches, if they ask him, in Dissenters' chapels. Declines
to set up any pretensions to priestly authority and priestly power. Goes
about doing good on a plan of his own. Is quite resigned never to rise
to the high places in his profession. Say