ul. Do you think I don't realize
how badly I've treated you, Talbot, not only in allowing you to believe
I was dead, but in turning up again? Well, do this for me, help this
young girl, and try to persuade yourself that we can cry quits."

"Quits! It is absurd! You are going? By Heaven, I feel that I ought not
to let you go. That, in justice to myself, my own sense of right and
honour, I ought to detain you, proclaim that----"

"It would be of no use," said Mr. Clendon. "You could not detain me, the
disclosure could not serve me. Remember that I am--that I have no child;
and that it is only a question of time, a short time, before all you
hold will be really, legally yours. Have patience. Let me go my way--it
is the only one for me----"

"But you will tell me where you live, where I can find you?" interrupted
Lord Sutcombe.

Mr. Clendon smiled, gravely. "I think not, Talbot. To tell you the
truth, I am so enamoured of this life of mine, of its solitude and
independence, that I cannot run the risk of having it broken in upon.
Good-bye. Don't bear me ill-will. And don't be afraid. I am going back
to the grave again."

The Marquess stretched out his hand, as if to detain him; but, with a
gesture, full of dignity and command, as well as imploration, the bent
figure passed out.

CHAPTER VIII

Four days after Mr. Clendon had rescued her from the Wolf, Celia, who
had been listening daily for his footsteps, heard them on the stairs.
She ran down, and caught the old man by the hand.

"Oh, come in!" she said, excitedly. "I have something to tell you."

He looked at her flushed face, her eyes all alight now; but without a
smile, and with his usual impassiveness, he went to her room.

"The most wonderful thing has happened!" she exclaimed. "Oh, but first,
let me try to thank you! The people who brought the things would not
tell me who had sent them, but they insisted that everything was paid
for, and, of course, I knew the milk and the bread, and the groceries
and the rest of it, came from you."

"That is nothing," he said, with the simplicity of good breeding. "Tell
me of this wonderful news."

"It's the most extraordinary, the most miraculous news," she said, with
a long breath. "You remember that advertisement I showed you? Well,
there came an answer to it--an answer! Here it is." She handed him one
of several letters she had snatched up from the table. "It is from a
very great man, you see; but, of course