e pavements of Bedford square. His impulse
was to overtake her, but after a few rapid strides he abandoned the
intention. The girl was safe enough at that early hour; no doubt she was
accustomed, as she said, to take care of herself. No need to launch into
a romantic episode--to walk behind her, keeping watch and ward, as if
she were likely to encounter terrible danger on the way. And yet, for
some reason or another, he continued to walk--slowly now--in the
direction which Cynthia West had taken.

It was quite out of his own way to go all along Gower street and
eastward down the Euston Road, yet that was what he did. He saw the tall
slight figure stop at an iron gate, push it open, and walk up the
flagged pavement to the door of a dingy but highly respectable-looking
house. The Euston Road is a neighborhood not greatly affected by people
of fastidious taste; and Hubert wondered, with a shrug of the shoulders,
why Miss West had found a lodging in the very midst of its ceaseless
maddening roar. He passed the house with a slow step, and as he did so
he read an inscription on the brass plate which adorned the gate by
which Cynthia had entered--

"MRS. WADSLEY.
"Select Boarding-House for Ladies and Gentlemen.
"Moderate Terms."

"Very moderate and very select, no doubt," thought Hubert cynically.
"Now is that girl making a fool of me, or is she not? All those pretty
airs might so easily be put on by a clever actress. I shall find her out
to-morrow. She can act a little--I know that; but, if she can't sing,
after what she has said, she may go to Jericho for me! And, if she does
not come at all, why, then I shall know that she is an arrant little
impostor, and that I am a confounded fool!"

"He stopped to light a cigar under a lamp-post, and a slight smile
played over his features as he struck the match.

"She's a beautiful girl," he said to himself; "if she does turn out an
impostor, I shall be rather sorry. But, by Jove, I don't believe she
will!"

CHAPTER XIV.

"Shall I take off my hat before I sing?" said Miss West calmly.

She was in Hubert's sitting-room. Mr. Lepel had the drawing-room floor
of a large and fine old house in Russell square--a floor which contained
two drawing-rooms opening out of each other, a bed and bath-room, and a
small den, generally called a smoking-room, although its master's pipes
and cigars were to be found in all corners of the apartments. H