be a countess, and said so.

"Archie and I talked together for a long time and with the result that in
my longing for protection from the powers against me and my indignation
at the way I was being treated I had promised when we parted to marry
him, and we had planned to elope together that very night.

"At that time we were living at Haynthorpe Hall--you know it?--about ten
miles from here. That evening I slipped out of the house after dinner and
met Archie, who was waiting for me at a quiet spot outside the village.
His plan was to drive across country to Branchester Junction, where it
was not likely we should be noticed or recognized, catch the night train
up to town and be married there next morning. You may imagine the state
of desperation--utter desperation and recklessness--I was in to have
consented to such a thing, but I could see no help for it, and of two
evils I seemed to be choosing the least. The future looked hideously
vague and dark; still Jolliffe was capable of being transformed into a
decent husband, while the other man assuredly was not.

"Archie seemed overjoyed, poor fellow, as I mounted into the dog-cart; he
had hardly expected that I should not repent. Once we were fairly off and
bowling along the dark road, a sense of relief came to me, and whatever
qualms I may have felt soon vanished. However wrong my conduct was I had
been driven to it and my father, for whom I was sorry, by taking part
against me, deserved to lose me.

"My companion had the tact not to talk much, and I was glad to think he
could realize the seriousness of the step he had persuaded me to take.
But the little he did say was affectionately sympathetic and, now that
the die was cast, it comforted me to indulge hopes of him.

"All went well till we were about three miles from Branchester; then an
awful thing happened. Our horse was a fast trotter, and Archie let him
have his head, knowing that it would never do for us to miss the train.
As we turned a blind corner we came into collision with another dog-cart
which we had neither seen nor heard. The force of the impact was so
great that our off-wheel was smashed; the cart went over, we were both
flung out, and as I fell I realized horribly that my desperate expedient
was a failure.

"I was not much hurt, for my fall was broken, and I soon scrambled to my
feet. But Archie lay there motionless. The man who was the only occupant
of the other dog-cart had pulled into the hedge a