ou have a noble 'art, lady; but you're flying in the face of the law
of supply and demand. If you keep payin' at this rate, there'll be a
rush of laborers to the college, and competition'll soon bring you down
from a shilling to sixpence, let alone ninepence. That's the way wages
go down and death rates goes up, worse luck for the likes of hus, as has
to sell ourselves like pigs in the market."

He was about to continue when the policeman took him by the arm, turned
him towards the gate, and pointed expressively in that direction.
Smilash looked vacantly at him for a moment. Then, with a wink at
Fairholme, he walked gravely away, amid general staring and silence.

CHAPTER V

What had passed between Smilash and Henrietta remained unknown except to
themselves. Agatha had seen Henrietta clasping his neck in her arms,
but had not waited to hear the exclamation of "Sidney, Sidney," which
followed, nor to see him press her face to his breast in his anxiety to
stifle her voice as he said, "My darling love, don't screech I implore
you. Confound it, we shall have the whole pack here in a moment. Hush!"

"Don't leave me again, Sidney," she entreated, clinging faster to him
as his perplexed gaze, wandering towards the entrance to the shrubbery,
seemed to forsake her. A din of voices in that direction precipitated
his irresolution.

"We must run away, Hetty," he said "Hold fast about my neck, and don't
strangle me. Now then." He lifted her upon his shoulder and ran swiftly
through the grounds. When they were stopped by the wall, he placed her
atop of it, scrabbled over, and made her jump into his arms. Then he
staggered away with her across the fields, gasping out in reply to
the inarticulate remonstrances which burst from her as he stumbled and
reeled at every hillock, "Your weight is increasing at the rate of a
stone a second, my love. If you stoop you will break my back. Oh, Lord,
here's a ditch!"

"Let me down," screamed Henrietta in an ecstasy of delight and
apprehension. "You will hurt yourself, and--Oh, DO take--"

He struggled through a dry ditch as she spoke, and came out upon a
grassy place that bordered the towpath of the canal. Here, on the
bank of a hollow where the moss was dry and soft, he seated her, threw
himself prone on his elbows before her, and said, panting:

"Nessus carrying off Dejanira was nothing to this! Whew! Well, my
darling, are you glad to see me?"

"But--"

"But me no buts, unless you