er uncle and
aunt?" Rufus asked.

"I am certain of it," Amelius answered. With that he left the room.

Rufus looked after him sadly. Sympathy and sorrow were expressed in
every line of his rugged face. "My poor boy! how will he bear it, if she
says No? What will become of him, if she says Yes?" He rubbed his
hand irritably across his forehead, like a man whose own thoughts were
repellent to him. In a moment more, he plunged into his pockets, and
drew out again the letters introducing him to the secretaries of public
institutions. "If there's salvation for Amelius," he said, "I reckon I
shall find it here."

CHAPTER 4

The medium of correspondence between Amelius and Regina's maid was an
old woman who kept a shop for the sale of newspapers and periodicals,
in a by-street not far from Mr. Farnaby's house. From this place
his letters were delivered to the maid, under cover of the morning
newspapers--and here he found the answers waiting for him later in the
day. "If Rufus could only have taken her out for a walk, I might have
seen Regina this afternoon," thought Amelius. "As it is, I may have to
wait till to-morrow, or later still. And then, there's the sovereign to
Phoebe." He sighed as he thought of the fee. Sovereigns were becoming
scarce in our young Socialist's purse.

Arriving in sight of the newsvendor's shop, Amelius noticed a man
leaving it, who walked away towards the farther end of the street. When
he entered the shop himself a minute afterwards, the woman took up a
letter from the counter. "A young man has just left this for you," she
said.

Amelius recognised the maid's handwriting on the address. The man whom
he had seen leaving the shop was Phoebe's messenger.

He opened the letter. Her mistress, Phoebe explained, was too much
flurried to be able to write. The master had astonished the whole
household by appearing among them at least three hours before the time
at which he was accustomed to leave his place of business. He had found
"Mrs. Ormond" (otherwise Regina's friend and correspondent, Cecilia)
paying a visit to his niece, and had asked to speak with her in private,
before she took leave. The result was an invitation to Regina, from Mrs.
Ormond, to stay for a little while at her house in the neighbourhood
of Harrow. The ladies were to leave London together, in Mrs. Ormond's
carriage, that afternoon. Under stress of strong persuasion, on the part
of her uncle and aunt as well as her friend,