cab, Geoffrey found the lad steadily waiting at his
post.

"Has any thing happened?"

"The lady hasn't moved, Sir, since you left her."

"Is Perry at the public house?"

"Not at this time, Sir."

"I want a lawyer. Do you know who Perry's lawyer is?"

"Yes, Sir."

"And where he is to be found?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Get up on the box, and tell the man where to drive to."

The cab went on again along the Euston Road, and stopped at a house in
a side-street, with a professional brass plate on the door. The lad got
down, and came to the window.

"Here it is, Sir."

"Knock at the door, and see if he is at home."

He proved to be at home. Geoffrey entered the house, leaving his
emissary once more on the watch. The lad noticed that the lady moved
this time. She shivered as if she felt cold--opened her eyes for a
moment wearily, and looked out through the window--sighed, and sank back
again in the corner of the cab.

After an absence of more than half an hour Geoffrey came out again.
His interview with Perry's lawyer appeared to have relieved his mind of
something that had oppressed it. He once more ordered the driver to
go to Fulham--opened the door to get into the cab--then, as it seemed,
suddenly recollected himself--and, calling the lad down from the box,
ordered him to get inside, and took his place by the driver.

As the cab started he looked over his shoulder at Anne through the front
window. "Well worth trying," he said to himself. "It's the way to be
even with her. And it's the way to be free."

They arrived at the cottage. Possibly, repose had restored Anne's
strength. Possibly, the sight of the place had roused the instinct of
self-preservation in her at last. To Geoffrey's surprise, she left the
cab without assistance. When he opened the wooden gate, with his own
key, she recoiled from it, and looked at him for the first time.

He pointed to the entrance.

"Go in," he said.

"On what terms?" she asked, without stirring a step.

Geoffrey dismissed the cab; and sent the lad in, to wait for further
orders. These things done, he answered her loudly and brutally the
moment they were alone:

"On any terms I please."

"Nothing will induce me," she said, firmly, "to live with you as your
wife. You may kill me--but you will never bend me to that."

He advanced a step--opened his lips--and suddenly checked himself. He
waited a while, turning something over in his mind. When he spoke again,
it was wit