d and changed colour
slightly.

"It will be giving you trouble," she observed regretfully.

"No--no, it is not that," he returned hurriedly; "but it is impossible
to say how things may be--what circumstances, or what complications may
arise to keep me in town. I will write--you shall not be kept in
suspense an hour longer than I can help; and you may depend on me that
I will do my utmost to break off this wretched engagement."

"I trust you implicitly," returned Dinah gravely. "You will forgive me
if I cannot thank you properly to-night."

"You need not move, Die; I will light Mr. Herrick's lantern for
him"--Elizabeth spoke in her old natural way. Malcolm stood beside her
silently as she performed her hospitable task. Then she placed it in
his hand. "I wonder how you groped your way through the plantation,"
she said smiling; "but this little glimmer will guide you safely.
Good-night, Mr. Herrick; we shall look eagerly for your promised
letter. Poor Dinah will have one of her bad sick headaches
to-morrow--worry always brings them on."

"She looks far from well," replied Malcolm; "I fear this has been a
great shock to her, and to you too;" and then he shook hands and went
out into the darkness. When he was half-way down the drive he turned
round--the door was still open, and the cheerful light streamed out
into the blackness. Elizabeth was standing on the threshold looking
after him. When she saw him stop she waved her hand with a friendly
'good-night;' then the door closed, and there was only the October
darkness, and an eerie, wandering wind moaning through the woodlands.

CHAPTER XXX

IN KENSINGTON GARDENS

If you would fall into any extreme, let it be on the side of
gentleness. The human mind is so constructed that it resists
vigour and yields to softness.
--ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.

Malcolm went up by an early train the next morning. He had a long day's
work before him--a mass of correspondence to sift, several business
interviews, and some proofs to revise. It was later than usual when he
went back to Cheyne Walk, but Verity had put aside his dinner for him,
and sat beside him while he ate it. She even brought him coffee with
her own hands. Perhaps these little womanly attentions soothed him
insensibly--though he was so used to them by this time that he was
almost tempted to take them as a matter of course--for his face lost
its strained, weary l