.'

'I must see it--and ruminate on what we once were: it is a thing I like
doing. The ghosts of our dead--Ah, what was that?'

'I heard nothing.'

'I thought I heard a footstep behind us.'

They stood still; but the road appeared to be quite deserted, and likely
to continue so for the remainder of that evening. They walked on again,
speaking in somewhat lower tones than before.

'Will the late Sir William's death delay the wedding much?' asked the
younger man curiously.

De Stancy languidly answered that he did not see why it should do
so. Some little time would of course intervene, but, since there
were several reasons for despatch, he should urge Miss Power and her
relatives to consent to a virtually private wedding which might take
place at a very early date; and he thought there would be a general
consent on that point.

'There are indeed reasons for despatch. Your title, Sir William, is a
new safeguard over her heart, certainly; but there is many a slip, and
you must not lose her now.'

'I don't mean to lose her!' said De Stancy. 'She is too good to be lost.
And yet--since she gave her promise I have felt more than once that
I would not engage in such a struggle again. It was not a thing of my
beginning, though I was easily enough inflamed to follow. But I will not
lose her now.--For God's sake, keep that secret you have so foolishly
pricked on your breast. It fills me with remorse to think what she with
her scrupulous notions will feel, should she ever know of you and your
history, and your relation to me!'

Dare made no reply till after a silence, when he said, 'Of course mum's
the word till the wedding is over.'

'And afterwards--promise that for her sake?'

'And probably afterwards.'

Sir William De Stancy drew a dejected breath at the tone of the answer.
They conversed but a little while longer, the captain hinting to Dare
that it was time for them to part; not, however, before he had uttered
a hope that the young man would turn over a new leaf and engage in some
regular pursuit. Promising to call upon him at his lodgings De Stancy
went indoors, and Dare briskly retraced his steps to Markton.

When his footfall had died away, and the door of the house opposite had
been closed, another man appeared upon the scene. He came gently out of
the hedge opposite Myrtle Villa, which he paused to regard for a moment.
But instead of going townward, he turned his back upon the distant
sprinkle of lights,