y.

After the second interview with Sol she was to some extent composed in
mind by being able to nurse a definite intention. As momentum causes the
narrowest wheel to stand upright, a scheme, fairly imbibed, will give the
weakest some power to maintain a position stoically.

In the temporary absence of Lord Mountclere, about six o'clock, she
slipped out upon the balcony and handed down a note. To her relief, a
hand received it instantly.

The hour and a half wanting to half-past seven she passed with great
effort. The main part of the time was occupied by dinner, during which
she attempted to devise some scheme for leaving him without suspicion
just before the appointed moment.

Happily, and as if by a Providence, there was no necessity for any such
thing.

A little while before the half-hour, when she moved to rise from dinner,
he also arose, tenderly begging her to excuse him for a few minutes, that
he might go and write an important note to his lawyer, until that moment
forgotten, though the postman was nearly due. She heard him retire along
the corridor and shut himself into his study, his promised time of return
being a quarter of an hour thence.

Five minutes after that memorable parting Ethelberta came from the little
door by the bush of yew, well and thickly wrapped up from head to heels.
She skimmed across the park and under the boughs like a shade, mounting
then the stone steps for pedestrians which were fixed beside the park
gates here as at all the lodges. Outside and below her she saw an oblong
shape--it was a brougham, and it had been drawn forward close to the
bottom of the steps that she might not have an inch further to go on foot
than to this barrier. The whole precinct was thronged with trees; half
their foliage being overhead, the other half under foot, for the
gardeners had not yet begun to rake and collect the leaves; thus it was
that her dress rustled as she descended the steps.

The carriage door was held open by the driver, and she entered instantly.
He shut her in, and mounted to his seat. As they drove away she became
conscious of another person inside.

'O! Sol--it is done!' she whispered, believing the man to be her brother.
Her companion made no reply.

Ethelberta, familiar with Sol's moods of troubled silence, did not press
for an answer. It was, indeed, certain that Sol's assistance would have
been given under a sullen protest; even if unwilling to disappoint her,
he mi