man before him did he fully
appreciate the exquisite innocent simplicity of the girl. In the day of
his passion Hilda had not seemed to him very young, very simple, very
wistful. On the contrary she had seemed to have much of the knowledge
and the temper of a woman.

Having at length subjugated the wick, she straightened her back, with a
gesture that he knew, and for one instant she was a girl again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TWO.

"Will you come this way?" she said coldly, holding the lamp in front of
her, and opening a door.

At the same moment another door opened at the far end of the hall; there
was a heavy footstep; a great hand and arm showed, and then Edwin had a
glimpse of a man's head and shoulders emerging from an oblong flickering
firelight.

Hilda paused. "All right," she called to the man, who at once
disappeared, shutting the door and leaving darkness where he had been.
The large shadows cast by Hilda's lamp now had the gaunt hall to
themselves again.

"Don't be alarmed," she laughed harshly. "It's only the broker's man."

Edwin was tongue-tied. If Hilda were joking, what answer could be made
to such a pleasantry in such a situation? And if she were speaking the
truth, if the bailiffs really were in possession...! His life seemed to
him once again astoundingly romantic. He had loved this woman,
conquered her. And now she was a mere acquaintance, and he was
following her stiffly into the recesses of a strange and sinister abode
peopled by mysterious men. Was this a Brighton boarding-house? It
resembled nothing reputable in his experience. All was
incomprehensible.

The room into which she led him was evidently the dining-room. Not
spacious, perhaps not quite so large as his own dining-room, it was
nearly filled by one long bare table. Eight or ten monotonous chairs
were ranged round the grey walls. In the embrasure of the window was a
wicker stand with a withered plant on its summit, and at the other end
of the room a walnut sideboard in the most horrible taste. The
mantelpiece was draped with dark knotted and rosetted cloth; within the
fender stood a small paper screen. The walls were hung with ancient and
with fairly modern engravings, some big, others little, some coloured,
others in black-and-white, but all distressing in their fatuous
ugliness. The ceiling seemed black. The whole room fulfilled pretty
accurately the scornfu