he was in an attitude which threatened violence when Paul intervened.

'My dear child!' said Paul in a tone of remonstrance as he conducted her
from the scene.

'Oh,' she broke in, with her little teeth clenched, 'I couldn't bear
it!'

He saw the folly of reproof and held his tongue, and when they came in
sight of the theatre she ran indoors and escaped him.

He had fallen into a habit of walking home with her when the night's
work was over, and saying good-bye to her at the door of her lodgings.
This fact made her mightily unpopular with the ladies of the company,
who saw no reason why she should be thus distinguished, and the snubs
she took disposed him to be more attentive to her.

They drifted closer, but no confidences were exchanged between them.

The company made for Australia, and there were six days of travel
aboard a well-found steamer, and this gave more than ample time for the
position to solidify. There were long promenades on deck by moonlight
and starlight, and the two found a perch in the bows out of the way
of all observation and regard, and there exchanged all manner of
confidences. The girl's simple life unrolled itself--its hopes, its
ambitions! its home affections. She talked of her reading, of her music,
of all the little intimacies of home-life. Before the brief voyage was
over he seemed, to his own apprehension, to know his companion more
completely than he had ever known man or woman, and he was hourly more
and more in love with her. He was feather-headed and irresponsible
enough to be happy in the circumstances for hours at a time, but when he
was alone, and his heart was no longer flattered by the worship she so
innocently offered, the skeleton he carried about with him came out of
its cupboard and seemed to mop and mow before him in derision. He was
bound hand and foot to his fate, and the bonds were not to be severed
There was Annette in far-away London and Paris dragging out a miserable
and ignominious life, which was likely to last as long as his own, and
he could see no hope of freedom. With every passing day he felt
more clearly that he was bent upon an inexcusable wrong, and yet, so
strangely fashioned is the conscience of a man who is without the power
of will, all his self-reproaches did but add to the tenderness and
fervour of his desire.

The steamer reached its destination late upon a Saturday, and Sunday was
a holiday. Paul and Madge spent the day together, wandering on a