tone of Loristan's. The
beautiful lady herself remarked it, and thought how unlike it was to
the ordinary boy-voice.

"I have a latch-key," she said, when they stood on the low step.

She found the latch-key in her purse and opened the door. Marco helped
her into the entrance-hall. She sat down at once in a chair near the
hat-stand. The place was quite plain and old-fashioned inside.

"Shall I ring the front-door bell to call some one?" Marco inquired.

"I am afraid that the servants are out," she answered. "They had a
holiday. Will you kindly close the door? I shall be obliged to ask
you to help me into the sitting-room at the end of the hall. I shall
find all I want there--if you will kindly hand me a few things. Some
one may come in presently--perhaps one of the other lodgers--and, even
if I am alone for an hour or so, it will not really matter."

"Perhaps I can find the landlady," Marco suggested. The beautiful
person smiled.

"She has gone to her sister's wedding. That is why I was going out to
spend the day myself. I arranged the plan to accommodate her. How
good you are! I shall be quite comfortable directly, really. I can
get to my easy-chair in the sitting-room now I have rested a little."

Marco helped her to her feet, and her sharp, involuntary exclamation of
pain made him wince internally. Perhaps it was a worse sprain than she
knew.

The house was of the early-Victorian London order. A "front lobby"
with a dining-room on the right hand, and a "back lobby," after the
foot of the stairs was passed, out of which opened the basement kitchen
staircase and a sitting-room looking out on a gloomy flagged back yard
inclosed by high walls. The sitting-room was rather gloomy itself, but
there were a few luxurious things among the ordinary furnishings.
There was an easy-chair with a small table near it, and on the table
were a silver lamp and some rather elegant trifles. Marco helped his
charge to the easy-chair and put a cushion from the sofa under her
foot. He did it very gently, and, as he rose after doing it, he saw
that the long, soft dark eyes were looking at him in a curious way.

"I must go away now," he said, "but I do not like to leave you. May I
go for a doctor?"

"How dear you are!" she exclaimed. "But I do not want one, thank you.
I know exactly what to do for a sprained ankle. And perhaps mine is
not really a sprain. I am going to take off my shoe and see."

"May I hel