d timidly towards him.

"I wanted to say good-night to you--and--there was something else--this!"

Something passed from her hand to his, something cold and hard. He looked
at her in amazement, but she was already on her way up the grey stone
steps which led from the courtyard into the hotel, and she did not turn
back. He opened his hand and stared at what he found there. It was a
key--number forty-four, _Premier etage_.

CHAPTER X

BLANCHE FINDS A WAY OUT

Mannering was conscious of an overpowering desire to be alone. He made
his way out of the courtyard and back to the promenade. Some of the
lights were already extinguished, and a slight drizzling rain was
falling. He walked at once to the further wall, and stood leaning over,
looking into the chaos of darkness. The key, round which his fingers
were still tightly clenched, seemed almost to burn his flesh.

What to do? How much more of himself was he bound to surrender? Through a
confusion of thoughts some things came to him then very clearly. Amongst
others the grim, pitiless selfishness of his life. How much must she have
suffered before she had dared to do this thing! He had taken up a burden
and adjusted the weight to suit himself. He had had no thought for her,
no care save that the seemliness of his own absorbed life might not be
disturbed. And behind it all the other reason. What a pigmy of a man he
was, after all.

A clock from the town struck eleven. He must decide! A vision of her rose
up before him. He understood now her weakness and her strength. She was
an ordinary woman, seeking the affection her sex demanded from its
legitimate source. He understood the coming and going of the colour in
her cheeks, her strained attempts to please, her barely controlled
jealousy. In that mad moment when he had planned for her salvation he had
imagined that she would have understood. What folly! Why should she? The
complex workings of his innermost nature were scarcely likely to have
been patent to her. What right had he to build upon that? What right, as
an honest man, to contract a debt he never meant to pay? If he had not at
the moment realized his responsibilities that was his own fault. From her
point of view they were obvious enough, and it was from her point of view
as well as his own that they must be considered.

He turned back to the hotel, walking a little unsteadily. All the time he
was not sure that this was not a dream. And then on the wet pav