hers appeared. She did not want to have
to face Albert, with inevitable argument and possible reproaches. Her
bruised heart ached too much to be able to endure any more from
him--angry and wounded, it beat her side.

She carried out her scheme quite successfully as far as the cab itself,
and then was betrayed. Poor Father's watch, that huge emblem of worth
and respectability, hanging with its gold chain and seals upon her
breast, had a rare but embarrassing habit of stopping for half an hour
or so, as if to rest its ancient works. This is what it had done
to-day--instead of half-past seven, the time was eight, and as the girl
and the cabman carried Joanna's box out of the door, Bertie appeared at
the head of the steep little stairs.

"Hullo, Joanna!" he called out in surprise--"Where on earth are you
going?"

Here was trouble. For a moment Joanna quailed, but she recovered herself
and answered--

"I'm going home."

"Home! What d'you mean? Whatever for?"

The box was on the taxi, and the driver stood holding the door open.

"I made up my mind last night. I can't stay here any longer. Thank you,
Alice, you needn't wait." She put a sovereign into the girl's hand.

"Come into the dining-room," said Albert.

He opened the door for her and they both went in.

"It's no good, Bertie--I can't stand it any longer," said Joanna, "it's
as plain as a pike as you and me were never meant to marry, and the best
thing to do is to say good-bye before it's too late."

He stared at her in silence.

"I made up my mind last night," she continued, "but I wouldn't say
anything about it till this morning, and then I thought I'd slip off
quiet. I've left a letter to you that I wrote."

"But why--why are you going?"

"Well, it's pretty plain, ain't it, that we haven't been getting along
so well as we should ought since I came here. You and me were never
meant for each other--we don't fit--and the last few days it's been all
trouble--and there's been things I could hardly bear ..."

Her voice broke.

"I'm sorry I've offended you"--he spoke stiffly--"but since you came
here it's struck me, too, that things were different. I must say,
Joanna, you don't seem to have considered the difficulties of my
position."

"I have--and that's one reason why I'm going. I don't want to take you
away from your business and your career, as you say; I know you don't
want to come and live at Ansdore ..."

"If you reelly loved me, and still felt