perplexity snatch a resolution, Lord Rivercourt had pulled the cord to
stop the coachman. The coachman, however, having received orders to
drive home, was driving at a goodly pace, and it was only on a second
summons through the cord that he slackened speed, and obeyed his
master's direction to "draw up by the kerb."

"I'll get out," said Lefevre, "and look after him. You'd better get Mary
home; she's not very strong yet, and she has been upset to-night."

He put himself thus forward for another reason besides,--on the impulse
of his friendship for Julius, without considering whether in the event
of an arrest and an exposure, he could do anything to shield Julius from
shame and pain.

He got out, saying his adieus, and the carriage drove on. He found
himself well past the Albany. He hurried back, nerved by the desire to
encounter Julius's visitor, and at the same time by the hope that he
would not. In his heart was a turmoil of feeling, to the surface of
which continued to rise pity for Julius. The events of the evening had
forced him to the conclusion that Julius possessed the same singular,
magnetic, baleful influence on men and women as his putative father
Hernando; but Julius's burst of agony, when Nora lay overcome, had
declared to him that till then he had scarcely been aware of the
destructive side of his power. All resentment, therefore, all sense of
offence and suspicion which had lately begun to arise in his mind, was
swallowed up in pity for his afflicted friend. His chief desire, now
that he seemed reduced to the level of suffering humanity, was to give
him help and counsel.

Thus he entered the Albany, and passed the porter. The lamps in the
flagged passage were little better than luminous shadows in the
darkness, and the hollow silence re-echoed the sound of his hurried
steps. No one was to be seen or heard in front of him. He came to the
letter which marked Julius's abode. He looked into the gloomy doorway,
and resolved he would see and speak to Julius in any case. He passed
into the gloom and knocked at Julius's door. After a pause the door was
opened by Jenkins. Lefevre could not well make out the expression of the
serving-man's face, but he was satisfied that his voice was shaken as by
a recent shock.

"I wish to see Mr Courtney," said Lefevre, in the half hope that Jenkins
would say, "Which Mr Courtney?"

"Not at home, sir," said Jenkins in his flurried voice, and prepared to
shut the door.