w beautiful objects
of art were scattered among the shabby furniture; there were stains of
wine on the fine Eastern rug, an inlaid table was scraped and damaged,
and one chair had a broken leg. All she saw spoke of neglect and
vanished prosperity. Hoarse voices and loud laughter came from an ad
joining room, and a smell of cigar smoke accompanied them. Sitting at
the piano, she restlessly turned over some music and now and then
played a few bars to divert her troubled thoughts. Until a few weeks
before, she had led a peaceful life in the country, and it had been a
painful surprise to her to find her father of such doubtful character
and habits. She was interrupted by the violent opening of the door,
and a group of excited men burst into the room. They were shouting
with laughter at a joke which made her blush, and one dragged a
companion in by the arm. Another, breaking off from rude horse-play,
came toward her with a drunken leer. She shrank from his hot face and
wine-laden breath as she drew back, wondering how she could reach her
father, who stood in the doorway trying to restrain his guests. Then a
young man sprang forward, with disgust and anger in his brown face, and
she felt that she was safe. He looked clean and wholesome by contrast
with the rest, and his movements were swift and athletic. Millicent
could remember him very well, for she had often thought of Lieutenant
Blake with gratitude. Just as the tipsy gallant stretched out his hand
to seize her, the electric light went out; there was a brief scuffle in
the darkness, the door banged, and when the light flashed up again only
Blake and her father were in the room. Afterward her father told her,
with a look of shame on his handsome, dissipated face, that he had been
afraid of something of the kind happening, and she must leave him.
Millicent refused, for, worn as he was by many excesses, his health was
breaking down; and when he fell ill she nursed him until he died. She
had not seen Lieutenant Blake since.

Mrs. Keith's voice broke in upon her recollections. "It's possible we
may see Bertram and the new Mrs. Challoner. She is going out with him,
but they are to travel by the Canadian Pacific route and spend some
time in Japan before proceeding to his Indian station." Referring to
the date of her letter she resumed, "They may have caught the boat that
has just come in; she's one of the railway Empresses, and there's an
Allan liner due to-morr