s going, and
notwithstanding the half pathetic, half appealing smile with which
she held out her hands, she was happy to go! Fenella saw his
expression and laughed in his face.

"Arnold looks at me as though I were a thief," she declared,
lightly, "and I have only come to claim my own. If you behave very
nicely, Arnold, you can come and see us just as often as you
please."

It was all over in a few minutes. The automobile which had been
standing in the street below was gone. Arnold was alone upon the
sofa. The book which she had been reading, her handkerchief, a bowl
of flowers which she had arranged, an odd glove, were lying on the
table by his side. But Ruth had gone. The little room seemed cold
and empty. He gripped the window-sill, and, sitting where they had
sat together only a few minutes ago, he looked down at the curving
lights. The old dreams surged up into his brain. The treasure ship
had come indeed, the treasure ship for Ruth. Almost immediately the
egotism of the man rebuked itself. If, indeed, she were passing into
a new and happier life, should he not first, of every one, be
thankful?--first of every one because within that hour he had
learned the secret toward which he had been dimly struggling?

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE SHIPS COME IN

The accountant was preparing to take his leave. There had been an
informal little meeting held in the dingy private office of Messrs.
Samuel Weatherley & Company, at which he had presided.

"I really feel," he said, as he drew on his gloves thoughtfully,
"that I must repeat my congratulations to you, Mr. Jarvis, and to
your young coadjutor here, Mr. Chetwode. The results which I have
had the pleasure of laying before you are quite excellent. In fact,
so far as I can remember, the firm has scarcely ever had a more
prosperous half year."

"Very kind of you, I am sure," Mr. Jarvis declared, "and most
satisfactory to us. We've worked hard, of course, but that doesn't
amount to much, after all. When you've been in a business, as I have
in this one, for something like thirty-five years, the interest you
take in it is such that you can't help working. This I must say,
though," he went on, placing his hand on Arnold's shoulder, "Mr.
Chetwode is almost a newcomer here, and yet his energy has sometimes
astounded me. Most remarkable and most creditable! For the last two
months, Mr. Neville, he has scarcely slept in London for a single
night. He has been to Bristol and C