in to Eleanor.

'Thank you,' he said, in acknowledgment of her tacit confession. 'But
oh! if I am satisfied, what need you care for others? Listen: I have
some money--more than enough to keep us for some years. We will go to
Australia, where they have not heard of us; or, if they have, we will
change our names. I can join the bar there, and do as well as here.
Are you not my only happiness? What are other things compared to
that?'

Again she looked at him sorrowfully. Again she shook her head. Then
she turned and gazed into the green and crimson of the sunset while
she spoke.

'You would not speak like that if you knew me. Do you suppose I have
not thought of all these things during my weary prison hours? I have
done nothing else since I saw you, since I saw you and knew you loved
me, Charles. But I must be strong where you are weak. I must decide in
this matter without heeding your wishes. I must decide as your mother
would, if you asked her. Would she wish you to marry a convicted
murderess? I have to speak plainly, because I want you to understand
me at once, Charles, and spare me the pain of further talk like this.
I shall go to London by myself, and I shall let you have my address on
the strict condition that you are never to come and see me till my
character stands clear again. You may write to me sometimes, not
often, but if you break the condition and come to me, I shall move
somewhere else and hide myself from you altogether. Now let us go and
find a hotel for me, different from yours.'

She made a movement to rise. Charles looked round once more. The
children had finished their game and disappeared. The brilliancy of
the sunset was dropping into dusk and gray. They were alone in the
twilight, beneath the faded trees.

'Eleanor, one pledge that you will not forsake me!'

She turned. Their eyes met; then their lips. The silent, close embrace
lasted but a minute, though to both of them it seemed longer than the
whole of their previous life. Then they arose and went forth out of
their poor paradise, like Adam and Eve, with the world lying empty and
desolate in front of them.

CHAPTER XIII.

UNDER THE GREAT SEAL.

Shortly after Prescott had returned to town, he was surprised to get a
letter from Tressamer to this effect:

'I want you to give me Eleanor's address. I must see her
once more, as I have something of importance to say to her.'

Without an instant's hesitation he sat down