e, the cousins she lived with
after her pa's death! No wonder she was surprised when I told her how
you and I went to Leatherhead and looked at their 'Ash Dump'--'Ash
Chump,' I mean. And we came just as near hirin' it, too; we would have
hired it if she hadn't put her foot down and said she wouldn't go there.
A good many queer things have happened on this pilgrimage of ours, Hosy,
but I do believe our goin' straight to those Crippses, of all the folks
in England, is about the strangest. Seems as if we was sent there with a
purpose, don't it?"

"It is a strange coincidence," I admitted.

"It's more'n that. And her goin' back to them is queerer still. She
hates 'em, I know she does. She as much as said so, not mention' their
names, of course. Why did she do it?"

I knew why she had done it, or I believed I did.

"She did it to please you and me, Hephzy," I said. "And to get rid of
us. She said she would do anything to please us, and she knew I did not
want her to remain here in Paris. I told her I should stay here as long
as she did, or at least as long as she sang at--at the place where she
was singing. And she asked if, provided she gave up singing there, you
and I would go back to England--or America?"

"Yes, I know; you told me that, Hosy. But you said you didn't promise to
do it."

"I didn't promise anything. I couldn't promise not to follow her. I
didn't believe I could keep the promise. But I sha'n't follow her,
Hephzy. I shall not go to Leatherhead."

Hephzy was silent for a moment. Then she said: "Why not?"

"You know why. That night when I first met her, the night after you had
gone to Lucerne, she told me that if I persisted in following her and
trying to see her I would force her to give up the only means of earning
a living she had been able to find. Well, I have forced her to do that.
She has been obliged to run away once more in order to get rid of us.
I am not going to persecute her further. I am going to try and be
unselfish and decent, if I can. Now that we know she is safe and among
friends--"

"Friends! A healthy lot of friends they are--that Solomon Cripps and his
wife! If ever I ran afoul of a sanctimonious pair of hypocrites they're
the pair. Oh, they were sweet and buttery enough to us, I give in, but
that was because they thought we was goin' to hire their Dump or Chump,
or whatever 'twas. I'll bet they could be hard as nails to anybody they
had under their thumbs. Whenever I see a woma