lp the county police. Nothing
came of it. The murderer has never been discovered, from that time to
this."

"When did it happen?"

"It happened in the autumn."

"The autumn of last year?"

"No! no! Nearly four years since."

CHAPTER VI. ON THE WAY TO THE VILLAGE.

Alban Morris--discovered by Emily in concealment among the trees--was
not content with retiring to another part of the grounds. He pursued
his retreat, careless in what direction it might take him, to a footpath
across the fields, which led to the highroad and the railway station.

Miss Ladd's drawing-master was in that state of nervous irritability
which seeks relief in rapidity of motion. Public opinion in the
neighborhood (especially public opinion among the women) had long since
decided that his manners were offensive, and his temper incurably bad.
The men who happened to pass him on the footpath said "Good-morning"
grudgingly. The women took no notice of him--with one exception. She was
young and saucy, and seeing him walking at the top of his speed on the
way to the railway station, she called after him, "Don't be in a hurry,
sir! You're in plenty of time for the London train."

To her astonishment he suddenly stopped. His reputation for rudeness was
so well established that she moved away to a safe distance, before she
ventured to look at him again. He took no notice of her--he seemed to
be considering with himself. The frolicsome young woman had done him a
service: she had suggested an idea.

"Suppose I go to London?" he thought. "Why not?--the school is breaking
up for the holidays--and _she_ is going away like the rest of them." He
looked round in the direction of the schoolhouse. "If I go back to wish
her good-by, she will keep out of my way, and part with me at the last
moment like a stranger. After my experience of women, to be in love
again--in love with a girl who is young enough to be my daughter--what a
fool, what a driveling, degraded fool I must be!"

Hot tears rose in his eyes. He dashed them away savagely, and went on
again faster than ever--resolved to pack up at once at his lodgings in
the village, and to take his departure by the next train.

At the point where the footpath led into the road, he came to a
standstill for the second time.

The cause was once more a person of the sex associated in his mind
with a bitter sense of injury. On this occasion the person was only a
miserable little child, crying over the frag