k her hands, held them firmly, compelled her to meet his look.

"Let us have an end of this, Olga! Your life is unhappy--let me help
you to forget. And help _me_! I want your love. Come to me--we can help
each other--put an end to this accursed loneliness, this longing and
raging that eats one's heart away!"

She suffered him to hold her close--her head bent back, the eyes half
veiled by their lids.

"Give me one day--to think----"

"Not one hour, not one minute! Now!"

"Because you are stronger than I am, that doesn't make me really
yours." She spoke in stress of spirit, her eyes wide and fearful. "If I
said 'yes,' I might break my promise. I warn you! I can't trust
myself--I warn you not to trust me!"

"I will take the risk!"

"I have warned you. Yes, yes! I will try!--Let me go now, and stay here
till I have gone. I _must_ go now!" She shook with hysterical passion.
"Else I take back my promise!--I will see you in two days; not here; I
will think of some place."

She drew towards the exit, and when her one hand was on the key, Piers,
with sudden self-subdual, spoke.

"You have promised!"

"Yes, I will write very soon."

With a look of gratitude, a smile all but of tenderness, she passed
from his sight.

On the pavement, she looked this way and that. Fifty yards away, on the
other side of the street, a well-dressed man stood supporting himself
on his umbrella, as if he had been long waiting; though to her
shortness of sight the figure was featureless, Olga trembled as she
perceived it, and started at a rapid walk towards the cabstand at the
top of the street. Instantly, the man made after her, almost running.
He caught her up before she could approach the vehicles.

"So you were there! Something told me you were there!"

"What do you mean, Mr. Florio?"

The man was raging with jealous anger; trying to smile, he showed his
teeth in a mere grin, and sputtered his words.

"The door was shut with the key! Why was that?"

"You mustn't speak to me in this way," said Olga, with troubled
remonstrance rather than indignation. "When I visit my friend, we don't
always care to be disturbed-----"

"Ha! Your friend--Miss Bonnicastle--was _not_ there! I have seen her in
Oxford Street! She said no one was there this morning, but I doubted--I
came!"

Whilst speaking, he kept a look turned in the direction of the house
from which Olga had come. And of a sudden his eyes lit with fierce
emotion.

"See! Somethi