d teach there every
day. Judith thinks we ought to stick to one another, we two."

"You're a lucky fellow," said Percival. "You don't know, and won't
know, what loneliness is here."

"But how do _you_ come to know anything about it? That's what I can't
understand. I thought your grandfather died last summer?"

"So he did."

"But I thought you were to come in for no end of money?"

[Illustration: "SHE DREW A SOFT WHITE CLOAK ROUND HER, AND WENT
BY."--Page 173.]

"I didn't, you see."

"But surely he always allowed you a lot," said Lisle, still
unsatisfied. "You never used to talk of doing anything."

"No, but I found I must. The fact is, I'm not on the best terms with
my cousin at Brackenhill, and I made up my mind to be independent.
Consequently, I'm a clerk--a copying-clerk, you understand--in a
lawyer's office here--Ferguson's in Fisher street--and I lodge
accordingly."

"I'm very sorry," said Bertie.

"Hammond knows all about it," the other went on, "but nobody else
does."

"I was afraid there was something wrong," said Bertie--"wrong for you,
I mean. From our point of view it is very lucky that circumstances
have sent you here. But I hope your prospects may brighten; not
directly--I can't manage to hope that--but soon."

Percival smiled. "Meanwhile," he said with a quiet earnestness of
tone, "if there is anything I can do to help you or Miss Lisle, you
will let me do it."

"Certainly," said Bertie. "We are going out now to look for a grocer.
Suppose you come and show us one."

"I'm very much at your service. What are you looking at?"

"Why--you'll pardon my mentioning it--you have got the biggest smut
on your left cheek that I've seen since I came here. They attain to
a remarkable size in Brenthill, have you noticed?" Bertie spoke with
eager interest, as if he had become quite a connoisseur in smuts.
"Yes, that's it. I'll look Judith up, and tell her you are going with
us."

Percival fled up stairs, more discomposed by that unlucky black than
he would have thought possible. When he had made sure that he
was tolerably presentable he waited by his open door till his
fellow-lodgers appeared, and then stepped out on the landing to meet
them. Miss Lisle, dressed very simply in black, stood drawing on her
glove. A smile dawned on her face when her eyes met Percival's, and,
greeting him in her low distinct tones, she held out her white right
hand, still ungloved. He took it with grave reverence, for J