ir. At least, I could if I could find the
fuel-house. 'Tis no such big place as I thought!'

'That's right: take courage!' said he with a tender smile. 'Now, I'll
dine out this evening, and leave the place for you to arrange as best
you can with the help of the porter's wife downstairs.'

This Pierston accordingly did, and so their common residence began.
Feeling more and more strongly that some danger awaited her in her
native island he determined not to send her back till the lover or
lovers who seemed to trouble her should have cooled off. He was quite
willing to take the risk of his action thus far in his solicitous regard
for her.

* * *

It was a dual solitude, indeed; for, though Pierston and Avice were the
only two people in the flat, they did not keep each other company, the
former being as scrupulously fearful of going near her now that he had
the opportunity as he had been prompt to seek her when he had none. They
lived in silence, his messages to her being frequently written on scraps
of paper deposited where she could see them. It was not without a pang
that he noted her unconsciousness of their isolated position--a position
to which, had she experienced any reciprocity of sentiment, she would
readily have been alive.

Considering that, though not profound, she was hardly a matter-of-fact
girl as that phrase is commonly understood, she was exasperating in the
matter-of-fact quality of her responses to the friendly remarks which
would escape him in spite of himself, as well as in her general conduct.
Whenever he formed some culinary excuse for walking across the few yards
of tessellated hall which separated his room from the kitchen, and spoke
through the doorway to her, she answered, 'Yes, sir,' or 'No, sir,'
without turning her eyes from the particular work that she was engaged
in.

In the usual course he would have obtained a couple of properly
qualified servants immediately; but he lived on with the one, or rather
the less than one, that this cottage-girl afforded. It had been his
almost invariable custom to dine at one of his clubs. Now he sat at home
over the miserable chop or steak to which he limited himself in dread
lest she should complain of there being too much work for one person,
and demand to be sent home. A charwoman came every two or three days,
effecting an extraordinary consumption of food and alcoholic liquids:
yet it was not for this that