ear the news you have brought. I
couldn't imagine who it was had called and wanted to see me. But
there's another thing. I didn't think Mrs. Brewer knew my address. I
have moved since I wrote to her daughter."

"No; it was the old address she gave me. I ought to have mentioned
that: it escaped my mind. First of all I went to Belmont Street."

"Mysteries still!" exclaimed Eve. "The people _there_ couldn't know
where I had gone to."

"A child who had carried some parcel for you to Gower Place volunteered
information."

Outwardly amused, and bearing herself as though no incident could
easily disconcert her, Eve did not succeed in suppressing every sign of
nervousness. Constrained by his wonder to study her with critical
attention, the young man began to feel assured that she was consciously
acting a part. That she should be able to carry it off so well, therein
lay the marvel. Of course, London had done much for her. Possessing no
common gifts, she must have developed remarkably under changed
conditions, and must, indeed, have become a very different person from
the country girl who toiled to support her drunken father's family.
Hilliard remembered the mention of her sister who had gone to
Birmingham disappeared; it suggested a characteristic of the Madeley
blood, which possibly must be borne in mind if he would interpret Eve.

She rested her arms on the little round table.

"So Mrs. Brewer asked you to come and find me?"

"It was only a suggestion, and I may as well tell you how it came
about. I used to have my meals in Mrs. Brewer's parlour, and to amuse
myself I looked over her album. There I found your portrait, and--well,
it interested me, and I asked the name of the original."

Hilliard was now in command of himself; he spoke with simple
directness, as his desires dictated.

"And Mrs. Brewer," said Eve, with averted eyes, "told you about me?"

"She spoke of you as her daughter's friend," was the evasive answer.
Eve seemed to accept it as sufficient, and there was a long silence.

"My name is Hilliard," the young man resumed. "I am taking the first
holiday, worth speaking of, that I have known for a good many years. At
Dudley my business was to make mechanical drawings, and I can't say
that I enjoyed the occupation."

"Are you going back to it?"

"Not just yet. I have been in France, and I may go abroad again before
long."

"For your pleasure?" Eve asked, with interest.

"To answer 'Yes' wouldn't qu