wild joy in his heart.

What did Cecilia Cricklander's insults matter? What did anything on
earth matter? He was free to go and seek his beloved one--and have every
sorrow healed as he held her to his heart. The only necessary thing now
was to find her immediately, which would require some thinking out. It
was too late to get an answer to any telegrams to England--he must wait
until the morning. Mrs. Porrit would know where Cheiron's next address
would be. Yes, he could hope to come up with the wanderers perhaps not
later than the day after tomorrow.

But when Arabella entered her employer's sitting-room after wishing him
good-by, she found Mrs. Cricklander in violent hysterics, and she had to
have the doctor and a sleeping draught before she could be calmed.

The hatefulness, the impossible arrogance and insolence of the man, she
had thought! and the humiliation to herself of knowing full well that,
instead of making this dismissal a scene of subtle superlative
cleverness, so that through all his torture he would be obliged to
admire and respect her skill--she had let her temper get the better of
her, and had shown him a side of herself that, she was well aware, was
most unrefined, so that he had been able to leave her, not as a humbled,
beaten cur, as she had intended, but feeling what she knew to be
unfeigned contempt.

No wonder she had hysterics! It was galling beyond compare, and not all
Mr. Hanbury-Green's devotion or flattery next day could heal the bitter
hurt.

"Oh, how I will help you, Percy!" she said, "to pull them all down from
their pedestals, and drag them to the guillotine!"

And Mr. Hanbury-Green had laughed, and said it gratified him greatly to
feel her sympathy and cooeperation would be with him, but he feared they
would never have the humorous pleasure of getting as far as that!

And, it being a Sunday, Arabella Clinker wrote to her mother to apprise
her of these events.

The engagement is over [Mrs. Clinker was told]--the advent of Mr.
Hanbury-Green (a very unpleasant personality, afraid of being polite
to me in case I should fancy myself his equal) seemed to clinch
matters in M. E.'s mind. I suppose he was able to give her some
definite assurance of the future of the Government. In any case, I
could see, when they returned from their excursion in the gondola
yesterday, that things were upon a very familiar footing between
them. Mr. H.G. has none of Mr. Der