ound that young Monkhouse Lee was beside him.

"I saw you there," he said, in a timid, deprecating way. "I wanted to
speak to you, if you could spare me a half-hour. This cottage is mine.
I share it with Harrington of King's. Come in and have a cup of tea."

"I must be back presently," said Smith. "I am hard on the grind at
present. But I'll come in for a few minutes with pleasure. I wouldn't
have come out only Hastie is a friend of mine."

"So he is of mine. Hasn't he a beautiful style? Mullins wasn't in it.
But come into the cottage. It's a little den of a place, but it is
pleasant to work in during the summer months."

It was a small, square, white building, with green doors and shutters,
and a rustic trellis-work porch, standing back some fifty yards from
the river's bank. Inside, the main room was roughly fitted up as a
study--deal table, unpainted shelves with books, and a few cheap
oleographs upon the wall. A kettle sang upon a spirit-stove, and there
were tea things upon a tray on the table.

"Try that chair and have a cigarette," said Lee. "Let me pour you out
a cup of tea. It's so good of you to come in, for I know that your
time is a good deal taken up. I wanted to say to you that, if I were
you, I should change my rooms at once."

"Eh?"

Smith sat staring with a lighted match in one hand and his unlit
cigarette in the other.

"Yes; it must seem very extraordinary, and the worst of it is that I
cannot give my reasons, for I am under a solemn promise--a very solemn
promise. But I may go so far as to say that I don't think Bellingham
is a very safe man to live near. I intend to camp out here as much as
I can for a time."

"Not safe! What do you mean?"

"Ah, that's what I mustn't say. But do take my advice, and move your
rooms. We had a grand row to-day. You must have heard us, for you
came down the stairs."

"I saw that you had fallen out."

"He's a horrible chap, Smith. That is the only word for him. I have
had doubts about him ever since that night when he fainted--you
remember, when you came down. I taxed him to-day, and he told me
things that made my hair rise, and wanted me to stand in with him. I'm
not strait-laced, but I am a clergyman's son, you know, and I think
there are some things which are quite beyond the pale. I only thank
God that I found him out before it was too late, for he was to have
married into my family."

"This is all very fine, Lee," said Aberc