I ever come to meet you?"

"We can't talk here," said Eve, turning away. "Come into a quieter
place."

They walked in silence to the foot of High Street, and there turned
aside into the shadowed solitude of Mornington Crescent. Eve checked
her steps and said abruptly--

"I want to ask you for something."

"What is it?"

"Now that it comes to saying it, I--I'm afraid. And yet if I had asked
you that evening when we were at the restaurant----"

"What is it?" Hilliard repeated gruffly.

"That isn't your usual way of speaking to me."

"Will you tell me where you have been tonight?"

"Nowhere--walking about----"

"Do you often walk about the streets till midnight?"

"Indeed I don't."

The reply surprised him by its humility. Her voice all but broke on the
words. As well as the dim light would allow, he searched her face, and
it seemed to him that her eyes had a redness, as if from shedding tears.

"You haven't been alone?"

"No--I've been with a friend."

"Well, I have no claim upon you. It's nothing to me what friends you go
about with. What were you going to ask of me?"

"You have changed so all at once. I thought you would never talk in
this way."

"I didn't mean to," said Hilliard. "I have lost control of myself,
that's all. But you can say whatever you meant to say--just as you
would have done at the restaurant. I'm the same man I was then."

Eve moved a few steps, but he did not follow her, and she returned. A
policeman passing threw a glance at them.

"It's no use asking what I meant to ask," she said, with her eyes on
the ground. "You won't grant it me."

"How can I say till I know what it is? There are not many things in my
power that I wouldn't do for you."

"I was going to ask for money."

"Money? Why, it depends what you are going to do with it. If it will do
you any good, all the money I have is yours, as you know well enough.
But I must understand why you want it."

"I can't tell you that. I don't want you to give me money--only to lend
it. You shall have it back again, though I can't promise the exact
time. If you hadn't changed so, I should have found it easy enough to
ask. Hut I don't know you to-night; it's like talking to a stranger.
What has happened to make you so different?"

"I have been waiting a long time for you, that's all," Hilliard
replied, endeavouring to use the tone of frank friendliness in which he
had been wont to address her. "I got nervous and irritable. I f