oquently. "I couldn't refuse it. Much better pay and more
fun, and all that sort of thing, and--oh, hang it all, Arnold, is it
likely a fellow could stay here now she's gone?" he wound up, with a
little catch in his throat.

So the old days were over! I looked at my desk, and by the side of it
was the chair in which she used sometimes to sit while I read to her.
Then I think that I, too, was glad that this change was to come.

"There is one thing, Arnold," Mabane said quietly, "about her things. We
locked the door of her room. Mrs. Burdett has packed up most of her
clothes, but there are the ornaments and a few little things of her own.
We should like to go in--Arthur and I. We have waited for you."

"We will go now," I answered. "She will have no need of anything that
she has left behind. We will each choose a keepsake, and lock the rest
up."

We entered the room all together, almost on tiptoe. If we had been
wearing hats I am sure that we should have taken them off. How, with
such trifling means at her command, she could have left behind in that
tiny chamber so potent an impression of daintiness and comfort I cannot
tell. But there it was. Her little bed, with its spotless counterpane,
was hung with pink muslin. There was a lace spread upon her
toilet-table, on which her little oddments of silver made a brave show.
Only one thing seemed out of place, a worn little slipper peeping out
from under a chair. I thrust it into my pocket. The others took some
trifle from the table. Then, as silently as we had entered, we left the
room. As I turned the key I choked down something in my throat, and did
my best to laugh--a little unnaturally, I am afraid.

"Come!" I cried, "it is I who am responsible for this attack of
sentiment. I will show you how to get rid of it. You dine with me at
Hautboy's. I have money--lots of it. Feurgeres left me twenty thousand
pounds. Hautboy's and a magnum of the best. How long will you fellows be
dressing?"

They tried to fall into my mood. Allan mixed cocktails. We drank and
smoked and shouted to one another uproariously from our rooms as we
changed our clothes. We drove to Hautboy's three in a hansom, and Arthur
spent his usual five minutes chaffing the young lady behind the tiny
bar. But when the wine came, and our glasses were filled, a sudden
silence fell upon us. We looked at each other, and we all knew what was
in the minds of all of us. It was Allan who spoke.

"To Isobel!" he said