up and down the avenue leading to the beach, while Mrs. Gerome's tall
form leaned on his arm, and the greyhound followed sulkily.

Salome had barely time to look upon the spectacle that fired her heart
and well-nigh maddened her, ere the dog lifted his head, gave one
quick, savage bark, and darted in the direction of the cedars.

Dread of detection and of Dr. Grey's pitying gaze was more potent than
fear of the brute, and she ran swiftly towards the gap in the hedge,
by which she had effected an entrance into the secluded grounds. Just
as she reached it, the greyhound bounded up, and they met in front of
the opening. He set his teeth in her clothes, tearing away a streamer
of her black dress, and, as she silently struggled, he bit her arm
badly, mangling the flesh, from which the blood spouted. Disengaging a
shawl which she wore around her shoulders, she threw it over his head,
and, as the meshes caught in his collar, and temporarily entangled
him, she sprang through the gap, and seized a heavy stick which lay
within reach. He followed, snarling and pawing at the shawl that
ultimately dropped at Salome's feet; but finding himself beyond the
boundary he was expected to guard, and probably satisfied with the
punishment already inflicted, he retreated before a well-aimed blow
that drove him back into the enclosure.

The instant he started towards the cedars Dr. Grey suspected mischief,
and, placing Mrs. Gerome on a bench that surrounded an elm, he hurried
in the same direction.

When he reached the spot, the dog was snuffing at a patch of bombazine
that lay on the grass; and, confirmed in his sad suspicion, the doctor
passed through the opening in the hedge and looked about for the
figure which he dreaded, yet expected to see.

Bushy undergrowth covered the ground for some distance, and, hoping
that nothing more serious than fright had resulted from the escapade,
he stowed away the bombazine fragment in his coat pocket, and slowly
retraced his steps.

Secreted by two friendly oaks that spread their low boughs over her,
Salome had seen his anxious face peering around for the intruder, and
when he abandoned the search and disappeared, she smothered a bitter
laugh, and strove to stanch the blood that trickled from the gash by
binding her handkerchief over it. Torn muscles and tendons ached and
smarted; but the great agony that seemed devouring her heart rendered
her almost oblivious of physical pain. In the dusk of comi