embarrassment, though her face made him welcome.

"I expected you sooner."

"Business kept me back. Well, little girl?"

The table was spread for tea, and at one end of it, on a high chair,
sat a child of four years old. Hilliard kissed her, and stroked her
curly hair, and talked with playful affection. This little girl was his
niece, the child of his elder brother, who had died three years ago.
The poorly furnished room and her own attire proved that Mrs. Hilliard
had but narrow resources in her widowhood. Nor did she appear a woman
of much courage; tears had thinned her cheeks, and her delicate hands
had suffered noticeably from unwonted household work.

Hilliard remarked something unusual in her behaviour this evening. She
was restless, and kept regarding him askance, as if in apprehension. A
letter from her, in which she merely said she wished to speak to him,
had summoned him hither from Dudley. As a rule, they saw each other but
once a month.

"No bad news, I hope!" he remarked aside to her, as he took his place
at the table.

"Oh, no. I'll tell you afterwards."

Very soon after the meal Mrs. Hilliard took the child away and put her
to bed. During her absence the visitor sat brooding, a peculiar
half-smile on his face. She came back, drew a chair up to the fire, but
did not sit down.

"Well, what is it?" asked her brother-in-law, much as he might have
spoken to the little girl.

"I have something very serious to talk about, Maurice."

"Have you? All right; go ahead."

"I--I am so very much afraid I shall offend you."

The young man laughed.

"Not very likely. I can take a good deal from you."

She stood with her hands on the back of the chair, and as he looked at
her, Hilliard saw her pale cheeks grow warm.

"It'll seem very strange to you, Maurice."

"Nothing will seem strange after an adventure I've had this afternoon.
You shall hear about it presently."

"Tell me your story first."

"That's like a woman. All right, I'll tell you. I met that scoundrel
Dengate, and--he's paid me the money he owed my father."

"He has _paid_ it? Oh! really?"

"See, here's a cheque, and I think it likely I can turn it into cash.
The blackguard has been doing well at Liverpool. I'm not quite sure
that I understand the reptile, but he seems to have given me this
because I abused him. I hurt his vanity, and he couldn't resist the
temptation to astonish me. He thinks I shall go about proclaiming him a
noble