fire had burnt low in the library, for the night was wet and warm.
It was now little more than a grey shell, and looked desolate. Trayton
Burleigh, still hot, rose from his armchair, and turning out one of the
gas-jets, took a cigar from a box on a side-table and resumed his seat
again.

The apartment, which was on the third floor at the back of the house, was
a combination of library, study, and smoke-room, and was the daily
despair of the old housekeeper who, with the assistance of one servant,
managed the house. It was a bachelor establishment, and had been left to
Trayton Burleigh and James Fletcher by a distant connection of both men
some ten years before.

Trayton Burleigh sat back in his chair watching the smoke of his cigar
through half-closed eyes. Occasionally he opened them a little wider and
glanced round the comfortable, well-furnished room, or stared with a cold
gleam of hatred at Fletcher as he sat sucking stolidly at his brier pipe.
It was a comfortable room and a valuable house, half of which belonged to
Trayton Burleigh; and yet he was to leave it in the morning and become a
rogue and a wanderer over the face of the earth. James Fletcher had said
so. James Fletcher, with the pipe still between his teeth and speaking
from one corner of his mouth only, had pronounced his sentence.

"It hasn't occurred to you, I suppose," said Burleigh, speaking suddenly,
"that I might refuse your terms."

"No," said Fletcher, simply.

Burleigh took a great mouthful of smoke and let it roll slowly out.

"I am to go out and leave you in possession?" he continued. "You will
stay here sole proprietor of the house; you will stay at the office sole
owner and representative of the firm? You are a good hand at a deal,
James Fletcher."

"I am an honest man," said Fletcher, "and to raise sufficient money to
make your defalcations good will not by any means leave me the gainer, as
you very well know."

"There is no necessity to borrow," began Burleigh, eagerly. "We can pay
the interest easily, and in course of time make the principal good
without a soul being the wiser."

"That you suggested before," said Fletcher, "and my answer is the same.
I will be no man's confederate in dishonesty; I will raise every penny at
all costs, and save the name of the firm--and yours with it--but I will
never have you darken the office again, or sit in this house after
to-night."

"You won't," cried Burleigh, starting up in a fr