some way out of this. You will trust me with these
sheets, Mr. Waddington? If my friend in the country can do nothing for
us, I will take them to the British Museum."

"By all means," Mr. Waddington replied. "Take care of them and bring
them back safely. I should like, if possible, to have a written
translation. It should indeed prove most interesting."

Burton went out with the musky-smelling sheets in his pocket. All the
temptations of the earlier part of the evening had completely passed
away. He walked slowly because a big yellow moon hung down from the
sky, and because Mr. Waddington's rooms were in a neighborhood of leafy
squares and picturesque houses. When he came back to the more travelled
ways he ceased, however, to look about him. He took a 'bus to
Westminster and returned to his rooms. Somehow or other, the possession
of the sheets acted like a sedative. He felt a new confidence in
himself. The absurdity of any return to his former state had never been
more established. The remainder of the night he spent in the same way
as many others. He drew his writing-table up to the open window, and
with the lights of the city and the river spread out before him, and the
faint wind blowing into the room, he worked at his novel.

CHAPTER XIV

THE LEGEND OF THE PERFECT FOOD

A foretaste of autumn had crept into the midst of summer. There were
gray clouds in the sky, a north wind booming across the moors. Burton
even shivered as he walked down the hill to the house where she lived.
There was still gorse, still heather, still a few roses in the garden
and a glimmering vision of the beds of other flowers in the background.
But the sun which gave them life was hidden. Burton looked eagerly into
the garden and his heart sank. There was no sign there of any living
person. After a moment's hesitation, he opened the gate, passed up the
neat little path and rang the bell. It was opened after the briefest of
delays by the trim parlor-maid.

"Is your mistress at home?" he asked.

"Miss Edith has gone to London for two days, sir," the girl announced.
"The professor is in his study, sir."

Burton stood quite still for a moment. It was absurd that his heart
should be so suddenly heavy, that all the spring and buoyancy should
have gone out of life! For the first time he realized the direction in
which his thoughts had been travelling since he had left his rooms an
hour ago. He had to remind himself that it was the profess