ung up her arms and fell senseless to the
floor. The end of all her hopes and fears--of all her joys and longing
and desire, was worse to her than death.

Johnson lifted her to the sofa, with a sort of awkward tenderness, which
perhaps he would not have liked to acknowledge to his master; and then,
before summoning Mrs. Capper, he thrust into Milly's pocket the envelope
containing the banknotes and the address which he had brought with him.
He knew that his master was "doing the thing handsomely," as far as
money was concerned, and he had no doubt but that the forsaken woman
would see, when she had got over her first mad frenzy of despair, that
she had better accept and use his gifts. So he stowed the envelope away
in her pocket, so that it might not attract the curious eyes of prying
servant or landlady.

Then he called to Mrs. Capper, and gave her a brief explanation of
Milly's swoon. "The lady's a little overcome," he said. "Mr. Beadon has
got to go abroad, and couldn't find time to see her before he went."

"Hard-heated brute!" said the landlady, as she chafed Milly's hands, and
held a smelling-bottle to her nose.

"Oh, dear, no!" said Mr. Johnson, briskly. "Family ties must not stand
in the way of business. I wish you good-day, and hope the lady will soon
be better."

And he left the house rather hurriedly, for he had no desire to
encounter the despairing appeal of Milly's eyes when she recovered from
her swoon.

"It is a little too bad to make me his messenger," he said to himself.
"He may do his dirty work himself another time. I thought she was quite
a different sort of person. Poor thing! I wonder how he feels about her,
or whether he feels anything at all."

He had an opportunity of putting his master's equanimity to the test
when he made his report of the interview--a report which was made that
very afternoon, in spite of his representations that Mr. Beadon had
already gone abroad.

"Well, you saw her?" he was asked.

"Yes, sir. I said what you desired, and gave her the money."

"Any fuss?"

"She fainted--that was all," said Johnson, grimly.

"But she kept the money?"

"She had no choice. I put it into her pocket while she was unconscious,
and then summoned the landlady."

"Ah, yes, that was right. And she understands----"

"Everything that you wish her to understand," said the clerk, with a
touch of disrespect in his manner, which his employer noticed, and
silently resented.

"Well, it