I
promised to meet papa at twelve, and I must not keep him waiting."

She rose and was about to pull on her gloves. But before she had time to
do so I had taken a little case from my pocket and opened it. When she
saw what it contained she could not help a little womanly cry of
delight.

"Oh, Dick! you naughty, extravagant boy!"

"Why, dearest? Why naughty or extravagant to give the woman I love a
little token of my affection?" As I spoke I slipped the ring over her
pretty ringer and raised the hand to my lips.

"Will you try," I said, "whenever you look at that ring, to remember
that the man who gave it to you loves you with his whole heart and soul,
and will count no trouble too great, or no exertion too hard, to make
you happy?"

"I will remember," she said solemnly, and when I looked I saw that tears
stood in her eyes. She brushed them hastily away, and after an interlude
which it hardly becomes me to mention here, we went down the stairs
again and out into the street, almost in silence.

Having called a cab, I placed her in it and nervously asked the question
that had been sometime upon my mind:--"When shall I see you again?"

"I cannot tell," she answered. "Perhaps next week. But I'll let you
know. In the meantime don't despair; all will come right yet. Good-bye."

"Good-bye and God bless you!"

Having seen the last of her I wandered slowly down the pavement towards
Oxford Street, then turning to my left hand, made my way citywards. My
mind was full of my interview with the sweet girl who had just left me,
and I wandered on and on, wrapped in my own thoughts, until I found
myself in a quarter of London into which I had never hitherto
penetrated. The streets were narrow, and, as if to be in keeping with
the general air of gloom, the shops were small and their wares of a
peculiarly sordid nature.

A church clock somewhere in the neighbourhood struck "One," and as I was
beginning to feel hungry, and knew myself to be a long way from my
hotel, I cast about me for a lunching-place. But it was some time before
I encountered the class of restaurant I wanted. When I did it was
situated at the corner of two streets, carried a foreign name over the
door, and, though considerably the worse for wear, presented a cleaner
appearance than any other I had as yet experienced.

Pushing the door open I entered. An unmistakable Frenchman, whose
appearance, however, betokened long residence in England, stood behind a
nar