the accompanying murmur of the
sea, were all the incidents that disturbed the customary flow of the
little waterfall.

The singer waited in a fixed attitude for a few minutes, then turning, he
rapidly retraced his steps over the intervening upland toward the road,
and in less than a quarter of an hour was at the door of the hotel.
Slipping quietly in as the clock struck ten, he said to the landlord,
over the bar hatchway--

'The bill as soon as you can let me have it, including charges for the
supper that was ordered, though we cannot stay to eat it, I am sorry to
say.' He added with forced gaiety, 'The lady's father and cousin have
thought better of intercepting the marriage, and after quarrelling with
each other have gone home independently.'

'Well done, sir!' said the landlord, who still sided with this customer
in preference to those who had given trouble and barely paid for baiting
the horses. '"Love will find out the way!" as the saying is. Wish you
joy, sir!'

Signor Smithozzi went upstairs, and on entering the sitting-room found
that Laura had crept out from the dark adjoining chamber in his absence.
She looked up at him with eyes red from weeping, and with symptoms of
alarm.

'What is it?--where is he?' she said apprehensively.

'Captain Northbrook has gone back. He says he will have no more to do
with you.'

'And I am quite abandoned by them!--and they'll forget me, and nobody
care about me any more!' She began to cry afresh.

'But it is the luckiest thing that could have happened. All is just as
it was before they came disturbing us. But, Laura, you ought to have
told me about that private marriage, though it is all the same now; it
will be dissolved, of course. You are a wid--virtually a widow.'

'It is no use to reproach me for what is past. What am I to do now?'

'We go at once to Cliff-Martin. The horse has rested thoroughly these
last three hours, and he will have no difficulty in doing an additional
half-dozen miles. We shall be there before twelve, and there are late
taverns in the place, no doubt. There we'll sell both horse and carriage
to-morrow morning; and go by the coach to Downstaple. Once in the train
we are safe.'

'I agree to anything,' she said listlessly.

In about ten minutes the horse was put in, the bill paid, the lady's
dried wraps put round her, and the journey resumed.

When about a mile on their way, they saw a glimmering light in advance of
them. 'I w