es about his mouth hardening as he went, for
he had resolved to cast off forever the girl who had become nothing
but a burden and an annoyance to him.

Edith did not move until she heard him enter the library again and
close the door after him.

Then, hurriedly buttoning her jacket and pinning on her hat, she took
from her trunk the package which she had made up an hour before, stole
softly from her room and down the back stairs to the area hall.

The outer door was closed and bolted--the gas-man having long since
finished his errand and departed--and she could hear the cook and one
of the maids conversing in the kitchen just across the hall.

Evidently no one had attempted to go upstairs since Giulia's entrance,
consequently the key had not yet been missed nor the door discovered
to be unlocked.

Cautiously slipping the bolt to the street door, Edith quickly passed
out, closing it noiselessly after her.

Another moment she was in the street, speeding with swift, light steps
across the park.

Then, bending her course through Dartmouth street, she came to a
narrow, crooked way called Buckingham street, which led her directly
out upon Columbus avenue, when, turning to the left, she soon came to
the station known by the same name.

Here she had ten minutes to wait, after purchasing her ticket, and the
uneasiness with which she watched the slowly moving hands upon the
clock in the gloomy waiting-room may be imagined.

Her waiting was over at last, and, exactly on time, the train came
thundering to the station.

Edith quickly boarded it, then sank weak and trembling upon the
nearest empty seat, her heart beating so rapidly that she panted with
every breath.

Then the train began to move, and, with a prayer of thankfulness over
her escape, the excited girl leaned back against the cushion and gave
herself up to rest, knowing that she could not now be overtaken before
arriving in New York.

This feeling of security did not last long, however, and she was
filled with dismay as she thought that Emil Correlli would doubtless
discover her flight in the course of half an hour, if he had not
already done so, when he would probably surmise that she would go
immediately to New York and so telegraph to have her arrested upon her
arrival there.

This was a difficulty which she had not foreseen.

What should she do?--how could she circumvent him? how protect herself
and defy his authority over her?

A bright idea flas