o am I," said Mrs Fiddison, removing a tear once more with a
scrap of crape. "My dear," she continued, fixing a band to the cap, and
holding it out--"isn't that sweet!"

Mrs Jenkles nodded.

"I think the gentleman wants the rooms at once," she said, glancing at
Richard.

"Yes, that I do," he replied. "I'll fetch my portmanteau over
directly."

"Oh, dear!" ejaculated Mrs Fiddison--"so soon."

And with some show of haste, she took a widow's cap off a painted
plaster Milton on the chimneypiece, another from Shakespeare, and
revealed, by the removal of a third, the celebrated Highland laddie, in
blue and red porcelain, taking leave of a green Highland lass, with a
china sheep sticking to one of her unstockinged legs.

Half an hour after, Richard was sitting by the open window, looking
across the street at where a thin, white hand was busy watering the
fuchsias and geraniums in the window, and from time to time he caught a
glimpse of Netta's sweet, sad face.

Then he drew back, for two men came along the street. The first,
black-browed and evil-eyed, he recollected as the fellow with whom he
had had the encounter on the race day, and this man paused for a moment
as he reached Sam Jenkles's door, turned sharply round, pointed at it,
and then went on; the second, nodding shortly as he came up, raised his
hand, and knocked, standing glancing sharply up and down the street,
while Richard mentally exclaimed--"What does he want here?" Then the
door opened, there was a short parley with Mrs Jenkles, and the man
entered, leaving Richard puzzled and wondering, as he said, half aloud--

"What could these men be doing here?"

Volume 3, Chapter V.

BETWEEN FRIENDS.

A fortnight passed away.

It was a difficult matter to do--to make up his mind as to the future;
but after a struggle, Richard arrived at something like the course he
would pursue. He must live, and he felt that he had a right to his pay
as an officer; so that would suffice for his modest wants.

Then, as to the old people. He wrote a quiet, calm letter to the old
butler, saying that some time in the future he would come down and see
them, or else ask them to join him. That he would do his duty by them,
and see that they did not come to want; but at present the wound was too
raw, and he felt that it would be better for all parties that they
should not meet.

Another letter he despatched to Mr Mervyn, asking him once more to be a
friend and guide to