t wait for a reply, but closed the door behind her, and stood
for a few moments in the hall, silently wondering what to do and where
to go. Finally she put on her garden hat and went out into the grounds.
She felt that she must be alone.

A sort of numbness came over her. He had gone, without a word, without
making any effort to see her again. His "Good-bye" had been spoken in
solemn earnest. He had been stronger than Elizabeth; although in
ordinary matters it might be thought that her nature was the stronger of
the two. There was nothing, therefore, for her to say or do; she could
not write to him, she could not call him back. If she could have done so
she would. She had never known before what it was to hunger for the
sight of a beloved face, to think of the words that she might have said,
and long to say them. She did not as yet know by what name to call her
misery. Only, little by little she woke up to the fact that it was what
people meant when they spoke of love. Then she began to understand her
position. She had promised to marry Percival Heron, but her heart was
given to the penniless tutor who called himself John Stretton.

CHAPTER XXV.

A COVENANT.

Brian had no fixed notion of what he should do, but he thought it better
to go to London, where he could more easily decide on his future
movements. He was in no present difficulty, for the liberal salary which
he had received from the Herons during the past few months was almost
untouched, and although he had just now a morbid dislike to touching the
money that had come to him through Elizabeth's generosity, he had the
sense to see that he must make use of it, and turn it to the best
possible account.

In the course of his journey he bought a newspaper. His eyes fell almost
immediately upon a paragraph which caused him some amazement.

"Mysterious Case of Attempted Murder.--A young man of respectable
appearance was discovered early this morning in a state of complete
insensibility at the end of a passage leading out of Mill-street,
Blackfriars. He was found to have received a severe wound, presumably
with a knife, in the left side, and had lost a considerable amount of
blood, but, although weak, was still living. His watch and purse had not
been abstracted, a fact which points to the conclusion either that the
wound was inflicted by a companion in a drunken brawl, or that the thief
was disturbed in his operations before the completion of the work. Th