to detection as she made for her lover's.

Uncertainty on this point lasted but a few seconds. Dreading to look at
the woman, Monica yet did so, just as she passed, and beheld the face
of a perfect stranger. A young and good-looking face, however. Her
mind, sufficiently tumultuous, received a new impulse of disturbance.
Had this woman come forth from Bevis's fiat or from the one
opposite?--for on each floor there were two dwellings.

In the meantime no one answered her knock. Mr. Barfoot had gone; she
breathed thankfully. Now she might venture to ascend to the next floor.
But then sounded a knock from above. That, she felt convinced, was at
Bevis's door, and if so her conjecture about the workman was correct.
She stood waiting for certainty, as if still expecting a reply to her
own signal at Mr. Barfoot's door. The mechanic looked down at her over
the banisters, but of this she was unaware.

The knock above was repeated. Yes, this time there could be no mistake;
it was on this side of the landing--that is to say, at her lover's
door. But the door did not open; thus, without going up herself, she
received assurance that Bevis was not at home. He might come later. She
still had an hour or two to spare. So, as if disappointed in a call at
Mr. Barfoot's, she descended the stairs and issued into the street.

Agitation had exhausted her, and a dazzling of her eyes threatened a
recurrence of yesterday's faintness. She found a shop where
refreshments were sold, and sat for half an hour over a cup of tea,
trying to amuse herself with illustrated papers. The mechanic who had
knocked at Bevis's door passed once or twice along the pavement, and,
as long as she remained here, kept the shop within sight.

At length she asked for writing materials, and penned a few lines. In
on her second attempt she failed to see Bevis, she would drop this note
into his letter-box. It acquainted him with the address to which he
might direct letters, assured him passionately of her love, and
implored him to be true to her, to send for her as soon as
circumstances made it possible.

Self-torment of every kind was natural to her position. Though the
relief of escaping from several distinct dangers had put her mind
comparatively at ease for a short time, she had now begun to suffer a
fresh uneasiness with reference to the young and handsome woman who
came downstairs. The fact that no one answered the workman's knock had
seemed to her a sufficient