nded by tears, took the hand and carried it to her
lips.

Mr. Clendon went down to his own room, almost as barely furnished as
Celia's had become; and he stood for a moment or two looking round it
with a sigh; then he took up his worn hat and stick, and went out. With
bent head, and eyes fixed on the pavement, he made his way to Grosvenor
Square; and, mounting the steps of one of the largest of the houses,
rang the bell. A dignified hall-porter opened the door leisurely, and
eyed the thin, poorly-clad figure and pallid face with stern disfavour.

"Is Lord Sutcombe at home?" asked Mr. Clendon, quietly, and not without
a certain dignity.

"His lordship the Marquess is within; suttenly; but----" The man
hesitated, with unconcealed suspicion.

"Will you tell his lordship, please, that a gentleman wishes to see
him?" said Mr. Clendon.

The porter looked beyond the bowed figure, as if he expected to see
someone else, the "gentleman" referred to; then, as he failed to see
anyone, he said, severely:

"'Ave you an appointment? 'Is lordship don't see promiskus visitors."

Mr. Clendon seemed to consider for a moment; as if he had expected this
difficulty. He wrote the single letter "W" on a piece of paper he found
in his pocket, and handed it to the man.

"Please give this to his lordship," he said, still with that quiet air
of dignity and composure which had impressed the porter, against his
will.

The man eyed the piece of paper doubtfully, and the applicant for
admission still more so; then, signing to the bench in the hall, by way
of permitting rather than inviting the old man to take a seat, he went
slowly up the broad stairs, lined with pictures and statuary, and
carpeted with thick Axminster. Mr. Clendon seated himself, leant both
hands on his stick and looked around him, not curiously, but with a
thoughtful, and yet impassive, expression. Presently the man came down,
with evident surprise on his well-fed countenance.

"Please follow me," he said; and Mr. Clendon followed him up the stairs,
and was ushered into a small room on the first floor. It was a library,
handsomely furnished and luxuriously appointed; a huge fire was burning
in the bronze grate, and, as its warmth went out to meet him, Mr.
Clendon thought of the fireless grate over which the young girl had
crouched. By the table, with one hand pressed hardly against it, stood a
middle-aged man, with a pale, careworn face; his hair was flecked with
grey;