s quite happy
again.

"But I've got something to tell you," said the Beggar Man reluctantly.
He looked up and down the street.

"Not a taxi to be seen, of course! Well, we must walk a little way."

But he walked so quickly that Faith had almost to run to keep up with
him.

A great many people in the street seemed to know him, she noticed, and a
policeman at the corner saluted smartly as they passed.

She felt tremendously proud of the Beggar Man. She wished everyone could
know that on Saturday he was going to marry her.

"We'll go in here," Nicholas said suddenly, and led the way into the
same teashop where they had sat last night.

He chose the same table and ordered tea. Faith looked round her with
excited eyes. There was the same girl in the desk, staring at them
curiously, and over there was the table where Peg had sat--empty now!
And Faith turned her eyes away with a little thrill of foreboding.

The Beggar Man was speaking.

"It's just this--I've got to go away----"

Faith's eyes dilated. In an instant everything else was forgotten.

"Go away!" she echoed blankly.

"Yes--only on business--to America. I shall be gone seventeen days, and
I go to-morrow."

"To-morrow!" Faith felt as if she was drowning. She did not know that
she had turned pale to the lips.

He went on speaking quickly.

"I can't take you--I wish I could. You'd want lots of clothes for one
thing, and it would take too long to get them, and to explain things to
your mother and the rest of the world. But"--he leaned a little nearer
to her over the table--"I've got a special licence in my pocket," he
said. "Will you marry me before I go?"

Faith put out both hands blindly and grasped the edge of the table
before her. For a moment she felt as if she were blind and deaf; then
she drew a long breath.

"Marry you--before you go!" she gasped. "To-day?"

The Beggar Man smiled. "Well, there's hardly time to-day, is there? I
thought to-morrow morning--early--about nine, if that is not too early
for you."

"I have to be at the factory at half-past seven." She uttered the excuse
tremblingly, knowing full well that it was no excuse at all.

He made an impatient movement.

"There is no need to consider the factory. You were to have left,
anyway. I'll make it right with them."

Faith had been conscious of a feeble sense of resistance, but now, as
she met his eyes, all will power seemed to desert her.

"Very well," she said, in a whispe