ional way. Janet walked the floor in a restless
agony, mechanically tearing the note into little, strips.
She must know--she must find out. She would write and
ask him for something--for what? A book, a paper--the
_New Monthly_, and she must have some particular reason.
She sat down to write, and pressed her fingers upon her
throbbing eyes in the effort to summon a particular
reason. It was as far from her as ever when the maid
knocked and came in with a note from Kendal asking them
to go to see Miss Rehan in "As You Like It" that evening
--a note fragrant of tobacco, not an hour old.

"You needn't wait, Jessie," she said. "I'll send an answer
later;" and the maid had hardly left the room before
Janet was sobbing silently and helplessly with her head
on the table. As the day passed however, Elfrida's conduct
seemed less unforgivable, and by dinner-time she was able
to talk of it with simple wonder, which became more
tolerant still in the course of the evening, when she
discovered that Kendal was as ignorant and as astonished
as they themselves.

"She will write," Janet said hopefully; but a week passed
and Elfrida did not write. A settled disquietude began
to make itself felt between the Cardiffs. Accepting each
other's silence for the statement that Elfrida had sent
no word, they ceased to talk of her--as a topic her
departure had become painful to both of them. Janet's
anxiety finally conquered her scruples, and she betook
herself to Essex Court to inquire of Mrs. Jordan. That
lady was provokingly mysterious, and made the difficulty
of ascertaining that she knew nothing whatever about Miss
Bell's movements as great as possible. Janet saw an
acquaintance with some collateral circumstance in her
eyes, however, and was just turning away irritated by
her vain attempts to obtain it, when Mrs. Jordan, decided
that the pleasure of the revelation would be, after all,
greater than the pleasure of shielding the facts.

"Wether it 'as anything to do with Miss Bell or not, of
course I can't say," Mrs. Jordan remarked, with
conscientious hypocrisy, "but Mr. Ticke, _he_ left town
that same mornin'." She looked disappointed when Miss
Cardiff received this important detail indifferently.

"Oh, nothing whatever," Janet replied, with additional
annoyance that Elfrida should have subjected herself to
such an insinuation. Janet had a thoroughgoing dislike
to Golightly Ticke. On her way back in the omnibus she
reflected on the