went on, a little wearily,
"but I feel that I am losing you, you are slipping away, and day by
day Isaac gets more mysterious, and when he comes home sometimes his
face is like the face of a wolf. There is a new desire born in him,
and I am afraid. I think that if I am left alone here many more
nights like this, I shall go mad. I tried to undress, Arnie, but I
couldn't. I threw myself down on the bed and I had to bite my
handkerchief. I have been trembling. Oh, if you could hear those
voices! If you could understand the fears that are nameless, how
terrible they are!"

She was shaking all over. He passed his other arm around her and
lifted her up.

"Come and sit with me in my room for a little time," he said. "I
will carry you back presently."

She kissed him on the forehead.

"Dear Arnold!" she whispered. "For a few minutes, then--not too
long. To-night I am afraid. Always I feel that something will
happen. Tell me this?"

"What is it, dear?"

"Why should Isaac press me so hard to tell him where you were going
to-night? You passed him on the stairs, didn't you?"

Arnold nodded.

"He was with another man," he said, with a little shiver. "Did that
man come up to his rooms?"

"They both came in together," Ruth said. "They talked in a corner
for some time. The man who was with Isaac seemed terrified about
something. Then Isaac came over to me and asked about you."

"What did you tell him?" Arnold asked.

"I thought it best to know nothing at all," she replied. "I simply
said that you were going to have dinner with some of your new
friends."

"Does he know who they are?"

Ruth nodded.

"Yes, we have spoken of that together," she admitted. "I had to tell
him of your good fortune. He knows how well you have been getting on
with Mr. and Mrs. Weatherley. Listen!--is that some one coming?"

He turned around with her still in his arms, and started so
violently that if her fingers had not been locked behind his neck he
must have dropped her. Within a few feet of them was Isaac. He had
come up those five flights of stone steps without making a sound.
Even in that first second or two of amazement, Arnold noticed that
he was wearing canvas shoes with rubber soles. He stood with his
long fingers gripping the worn balustrade, only two steps below
them, and his face was like the face of some snarling animal.

"Ruth," he demanded, hoarsely, "what are you doing out here at this
time of night--with him?"

She slip