ul! For, you know, she cares, too!"

"Not as I do. I hope and think that is impossible," said Dudley,
hoarsely.

There was another pause, a longer one. Then Queenie gave utterance to a
little sob. Dudley, who was sitting on the table at which she was at
work, got upon his feet with an impatient movement. His dark face looked
hard and angry. As he paced once or twice up and down the small space
available in the disordered room, the inward fight which was going on
between his passion and his sense of right convulsed his face, and
Queenie shuddered as, glancing at him, she fancied she could see in the
glare of his black eyes the haunting madness at which he seemed so
plainly to have hinted.

She rose in her turn.

"But, Dudley--" she began.

And then, unable to express what she felt, what she thought, any better
than he had done, she turned abruptly away and sat down again.

There was silence for a few moments, and then she heard the door close.
Looking round, she saw that he had left the room.

CHAPTER VI.

THE LITTLE STONE PASSAGE.

Queenie kept Dudley's half-confessed secret to herself for the whole of
that day. She was hoping against hope that he would change his mind
again and speak to Doreen himself. Since there must be a definite and
final breach, she thought it would be better for the principals
themselves to come to an understanding, without the intervention of
outsiders. She would have told him so, but she got no further
opportunity of speaking to him alone.

The day passed uncomfortably for everybody, although the only person who
gave vent to his feelings by open ill-temper was Mr. Wedmore, who was
waiting for the promised explanation which Dudley never attempted to
give. And before dinner-time that evening the young barrister returned
to town.

Mr. Wedmore, who had been out shooting with Doctor Haselden, was
furious, on returning home, to learn of Dudley's departure.

"He has left a note for you, papa, in the study," said Doreen, who was,
perhaps, a little paler than usual, but who gave no other outward sign
of her feelings.

Her father went into the study, after a glance at his daughter, and read
the letter. It was not a very long one. Following the lines of his
guarded confession to Queenie, Dudley expressed the sorrow he felt at
having to give up the hopes he had had of being something more than the
mere old friend he had been for so many years. He had thought it better,
at the last