upplemented contemptuously. "Millicent, one could almost admire you."
Turning to Leslie he asked: "But are you struck dumb that you let the
woman speak? This was my promised wife to whom you have been making
love, though, for delicacy would be superfluous, it is evident that she
has not discouraged you. Until three days ago I could have trusted my
life to her. Now, I presume, she has pledged herself to you?"

"Yes," answered Leslie, recovering his equanimity as his fears grew
less oppressive. He began to excuse himself but Geoffrey cut him short
with a gesture.

"Then, even if I desired to make them, my protests would be useless,"
said Geoffrey. "I am at least grateful for your frankness, Millicent;
it prevented me from wringing the truth from your somewhat abject
lover. Had you told me honestly, when this man first spoke to you,
that you had grown tired of me, I would have released you, and I would
have tried to wish you well. Now I can only say, that at least you
know the worst of each other--and there will be less disappointment
when, stripped of either mutual or self respect, you begin life
together. But I was forgetting that Franklin's keepers are searching
the wood. Some of them might talk. Go at once by the Hall path, as
softly as you can."

The man and the girl were plainly glad to hurry away, and Geoffrey
waited until the sound of their footsteps became scarcely audible
before he heeded a faint rustling which indicated that somebody with a
knowledge of woodcraft was forcing a passage through the undergrowth.
He broke a dry twig at intervals as he walked slowly for a little
distance. Then he dropped on hands and knees to cross a strip of open
sward at an angle to his previous course, and lay still in the black
shadow of a spruce. It was evident that somebody was following his
trail, and the pursuer, passing his hiding-place, followed it straight
on. Geoffrey's was a curious character, and the very original cure for
a disappointment in love, that of baffling a game watcher while his
faithless mistress escaped, brought him relief; it left no time for
reflection.

Presently he dashed across a bare strip of velvet mosses and
rabbit-cropped turf, slipped between the roots of the hedge, and,
running silently beneath it, halted several score yards away face to
face with the astonished keeper. "Weel, I'm clanged; this clean beats
me," gasped that worthy. "Hello, behind there. It's only Mr.
Geoffrey