;" and here there was a
slightly mocking tone in Percy's voice. "He is with _la belle_ Evelyn
as usual. I am afraid Erle does not quite hit it as an ardent lover;
he is rather half-hearted. He asked me to go down to Victoria Station
to meet his visitor, but I declined, with thanks. I had other business
on hand, and I do not care to be ordered about; so the carriage must
go alone."

"You are expecting visitors at Belgrave House then?" she asked; but
there was no interest in her manner. She only wanted to keep
conversation to general subjects. She would talk of Belgrave House or
of anything he liked if he would only not make love to her. If he only
knew how she hated it, and from him of all men.

"Oh, it is not my visitor," was the reply; "it is only some old fogy
or other that Erle has picked up at Sandycliffe--Erle has a craze
about picking up odd people. Fancy inflicting a blind parson on us, by
way of a change."

He was not looking at the girl as he spoke, or he must have seen the
startled look on her face. The next moment she had turned her long
neck aside.

"Do you mean he is actually blind, and a clergyman? how very strange!"

"Yes; the result of some accident or other. His name is Ferrers. Erle
raved about him to my grandfather; but then Erle always raves about
people--he is terribly softhearted. He is coming up to London, on some
quest or other, no one knows what it is, Erle is so very mysterious
about the whole thing."

"Oh, indeed," rather faintly; "and you--you are to meet him, Mr.
Trafford?"

"On the contrary, I am going to do nothing of the kind," he returned,
imperturbably. "I told Erle that at 6:30, the time the train was due,
I was booked for a pressing engagement. I did not mention the
engagement was with my mother, and that I should probably be partaking
of a cup of tea; but the fact is true nevertheless."

Crystal did not answer; perhaps she could not. He was coming up to
London, actually to Belgrave House, and on this very evening. Erle
must have got scent of her secret--how or in what manner she could not
guess; but all the same, it must be Erle who had betrayed her. She had
thought him a little odd and constrained the last few times she had
seen him; she had noticed more than once that his eyes had been fixed
thoughtfully on her face as though he had been watching her, and he
had seemed somewhat confused when he had found himself detected. What
did it all mean; but never mind that now. Ra