with
eyes in which the reproach was terrible to his inmost soul. "Did you
ever think what he had to bear?" Her hand was on the door. "I am going
now," she said--"I am going to my father; I have learned the place in
which he lives. But I shall not tell him what you have just told me.
Justify him to the world if you like; till that is done, I will never
speak to you again."

"Cynthia--Cynthia!" cried the wretched man.

He rose from the sofa and stretched out his arms blindly towards her.
But she would not relent.

As she left the room, he fell to the floor--insensible for the second
time that day. She heard the crashing fall--she knew that he was in
danger; but her heart was hardened, and she would not look back. The
only thing she did was to call Jenkins before she left the house and
send him to his master. And then she went out into the street, and said
to herself that she would never enter the house again.

Jenkins went up to the drawing-room, and found Mr. Lepel lying on the
floor. He and his wife managed with some difficulty to get him back to
bed. Then they sent for the Doctor. But, when the Doctor came, he shook
his head, and looked very serious over Hubert's state. A relapse had
taken place; he was delirious again; and no one could say whether he
would recover from this second attack. Cynthia was asked for at once;
but Cynthia was nowhere to be found.

"She will come back, no doubt, sir," Jenkins said.

"I hope she will," the Doctor answered, "for Mr. Lepel's chances are
considerably lessened by her absence."

But the night passed, and the next day followed, and the next; but
Cynthia never came.

In the meantime there was one person in the house who knew more of her
than she chose to say. Miss Sabina Meldreth had been keeping her eye, by
Mrs. Vane's orders, upon Cynthia West. She had listened at the door
during the conversation between Enid and Hubert, but without much
result. Their voices had been subdued, and she had gained nothing for
her pains. But it was somewhat different during the interview between
Cynthia and Hubert. The emotion of the two speakers had been rather too
difficult to repress. Some few of Hubert's words, as well as Cynthia's
passionate sobs, had reached her ears; and Cynthia's last sentences,
spoken in a clear penetrating voice, had not been lost on her. She was
behind the folding-door between the two rooms when Cynthia made her
exit. Sabina Meldreth's heart beat with excitement. Mi