her strength--he was only just
in time to save her from falling.

"Brute!" she muttered, and the colour fled from her cheeks like breath
from a looking-glass.

Macheson laid her on the couch and rang the bell. Suddenly he realized
that they were alone. From outside came the sound of wheels. He sprang
up listening. Wilhelmina, too, opened her eyes. She waved him away
feebly. He smiled back his comprehension.

"The servants are coming," he said. "I can hear them. I promise you that
if he catches the train, I will!"

[Illustration: "GO ON," SHE SAID COOLLY, "I AM CURIOUS TO HEAR THE
REST." Page 240]

He vaulted through the window which he had already opened. The sound of
wheels had died away, but he set his face at once towards the station,
running with long easy strides, and gradually increasing his pace.
Stephen Hurd, with his handkerchief to his mouth, and with all his
nerves tingling with a sense of fierce excitement, looked behind him
continually, but saw nothing. Long before he reached the station he had
abandoned all fear of pursuit. Yet during the last half-mile Macheson
was never more than a few yards from him, and on St. Pancras platform he
was almost the first person he encountered.

"Macheson! By God!"

He almost dropped the coat he was carrying. He looked at Macheson as one
might look at a visitor from Mars. It was not possible that this could
be the man from whom he had fled. Macheson smiled at him grimly.

"How did--how did you get here?" the young man faltered.

"By the same train as you," Macheson answered. "How else? Where are you
going to meet Letty?"

Hurd answered with a curse.

"Why the devil can't you mind your own business?" he demanded.

"This is my business," Macheson answered.

Then he turned abruptly round towards the hesitating figure of the girl
who had suddenly paused in her swift approach.

"It is my business to take you home, Letty," he said. "I have come to
fetch you!"

Letty looked appealingly towards Stephen Hurd. What she saw in his
face, however, only terrified her.

"Look here," he said thickly, "I've had almost enough of this. You can
go to the devil--you and Miss Thorpe-Hatton, too! I won't allow any one
to meddle in my private concerns. Come along, Letty."

He would have led her away, but Macheson was not to be shaken off. He
kept his place by the girl's side.

"Letty," he said, "are you married to him?"

"Not yet," she answered hesitatingly. "But we are g