s all I have
to say to you."

Having relieved her feelings with these and a few more verbal missiles,
Polly ran up the kitchen steps. In the passage the two men were still
conversing; at sight of Polly they stopped with an abruptness which did
not escape her observation. No doubt, she said to herself, they had
been talking about her. No doubt, too, they had their reasons for
letting her go by as before without a word. Only when she was half-way
up the first flight of stairs did Mr. Cheeseman call to her a
"Goodnight, Miss Sparkes," to which she made no reply whatever.

On the morrow she called at the little stationer's shop, but no letter
awaited her. She decided to be again at the rendezvous that evening,
lest there should have been some mistake in her cipher message; but she
lingered near the College of Surgeons in vain. Polly's heart sank as
she went home, for to-night there was no one to quarrel with. Mrs. Bubb
and all the lodgers had shown that they meant to hold aloof; not even
Moggie would look at her or speak a word. It was quite an unprecedented
state of things, and Polly found it disagreeable.

There was only one consolation, and that a poor one. She had received a
letter from Christopher Parish, a letter of abject remonstrance and
entreaty. He grovelled at her feet. He talked frantically of poison and
the river. If she would but meet him and hear him in his own defence!
And Polly quite meaning to do so, gave herself the pleasure of
appearing obdurate for a couple of days.

At the theatre she examined every row of spectators in stalls and
dress-circle, having he own reason for thinking that she might discover
certain face. But no such fortune befell her, and still no letter came.

At home she suffered increasing discomfort. For one thing she had to
seek her meals in the nearest coffee-shop instead of going down into
Mrs. Bubb's kitchen and gossiping as she ate at the family deal table,
amid the dirt and disorder which custom had made pleasant. When in the
house she locked herself in her bedroom, reading the kind of print that
interested her, or lying in sullen idleness on the bed. Numerous as
were her acquaintances elsewhere, they did not compensate her for the
loss of domestic habit, As the week drew on she bethought herself that
she must look for new lodgings. In giving notice to Mrs. Bubb she had
not believed for a moment that it would come to this she felt, sure
that her old friend would make up the q