o your work properly, well and
good; but if not, you must really consider your engagement at an
end."

All this time Mrs. Doss had said nothing. Bella had talked so volubly
and so fast, there had really been no chance of getting in a word;
and when the manager rose to his feet to intimate that the interview
was at an end, there was nothing to be done but to follow Bella out
into the street.

"There!" she cried triumphantly, "I told you I would bring him to his
senses. You saw how soon he caved in. It is not a question of my
health at all; you may bet your bottom dollar I have an enemy, but I
flatter myself I've routed him."

Her breath was coming in gasps and she spoke with difficulty. Now
that the excitement was over and the necessity for bearing up at an
end, there came the reaction.

"I think I had better go home and lie down," she said, "or I shall
not be at my post to-night, and I must, you know, I must."

"Poor child, I could fairly have cried," said kindly Mrs. Doss to her
spouse after Bella had been safely escorted home.

"I'm not satisfied with you, old girl," said Mr. Doss, shaking his
head mournfully. "I can't 'elp thinking you might ha' managed things
better. If Bella Blackall goes on a singing at the Hempire, you mark
my words, she'll sing herself into 'eaven."

CHAPTER VII.

A week went by slowly: the hours crept like snails, and yet the days
were surely slipping away, bringing nearer and nearer the one which
was to give Sir John Chetwynd his second wife.

He had hardly seen Lady Ethel since the evening when she had yielded
a coy assent to his not (it must be confessed) very amorous request
that she would fix an early day for their nuptials, and his state of
mind was anything but an enviable one. If ever a man was torn two
ways, halting between prudence and worldly consideration on one side
and the force and power of a love which he had honestly believed was
laid for ever in its grave, that man was Sir John. The idea of seeing
Bella again did not occur to him for some days, but when it fastened
on him he could not shake it off. It was stronger than himself. He
excused his temptation by the condition of her health, though in his
heart of hearts he knew well enough that this was not sufficiently
critical to serve for a reason.

Twice he seized his hat with the intention of going to her, then laid
it aside, angry and disgusted with his own weakness.

His profession no longer occupied hi