silk shade of the lamp. Why, it was only three minutes to nine! Then
they hadn't yet passed Dorgival; in fact they wouldn't be there for
another twenty minutes, for this train took two hours to do what the
quick expresses accomplished in an hour and a quarter.

It was good to know that he had only slept for quite a little while. The
desire for sleep had now left him completely, and he began to feel
excited, restless, and intensely, glowingly alive....

The curious depression and unease which had possessed him a few moments
ago lifted from his soul; the future was once more full of infinite
possibilities.

His darling little Peggy! What strange beings women were! With what
self-contempt, with what scorpions would he have lashed himself, had he
been the one to evolve this plan of this furtive flight, to be followed
at the end of a week by a return to the life to which he now looked back
with shame as well as distaste! And yet she, the woman he loved, had
evolved it, and thought out every detail of the scheme--before telling
him of what was in her mind...

As to the future? Vanderlyn threw back his head; nay, nay, there could
be no going back to what had been. Even Peggy would see that. She had
herself broken down the barrier erected with such care; and soon, very
soon she would--she must--see that such breaches can never be repaired
or treated as if they had not been made. What had happened, what was
happening, to-night, was, in very truth the beginning, for them both, of
a new life.

So Laurence Vanderlyn swore to himself, taking many silent vows of
chivalrous devotion to the woman who, for love of him, had broken, not
only with life-long traditions of honour, but also with a conscience he
had known to be so delicately scrupulous.

* * * * *

From where he was standing in the middle of the swaying carriage,
something in the way in which his sleeping companion's head was lying
suddenly aroused Vanderlyn's quick, keen attention. Putting out a hand
to steady himself against the back of the compartment, he bent
down--indifferent to the risk of rousing the still figure.

Then, with a rapid movement, he straightened himself; his face had gone
grey--expressionless. He pushed back the blue shade off the globe of
light, careless of the bright rays which suddenly illumined every corner
of the railway carriage....

With an instinctive gesture, Vanderlyn covered his eyes and shut out the
b