own way. She felt her powers of resistance
becoming almost impotent, and she watched their dissipation with secret
joy. How was it possible to resist a lover so confident, so
authoritative, especially when her whole heart was filled with a
passionate longing to throw everything else to the winds and to place
her hands in his. Perhaps by to-morrow, she thought, things would seem
different to her, but in the meantime she gave him the address of the
boarding-house in Russell Street. How could she help it!

"I shall be there," he said, "sometime before twelve to-morrow morning.
You won't be going out before then?"

"I--suppose not," she faltered.

He called the waiter and asked for the bill for his dinner. Hers she had
already paid. She rose to her feet.

"Please," she said earnestly, "do not come out with me. I am going now,
and where I am going I must go alone."

He glanced opposite, to where the three men were still sitting.

"Very well," he said, "I will let you go. You will permit me, I presume,
to see you out of the restaurant?"

He walked down with her to the door, and would have called a hansom, but
she answered that she preferred to walk.

"I have an automobile here if you will use it," he said, "and I will
engage not to ask the man where he drove you."

"I am not afraid of that," she answered, "but I would rather walk, if
you please. I have only a very little way to go."

He took both her hands in his firmly.

"Virginia, dear," he said, smiling down at her, "good night, and
remember that I am coming to see you to-morrow, and that I am going to
bring that special license. You are going to marry me whether you want
to or not, and very soon too."

Virginia hurried away, breathless.

CHAPTER VIII

DEFEATED

Virginia drew a little breath of relief. After all it had been very
easy. She had simply walked into the flats, entered the lift, ascended
to the fifth floor, opened the door of No. 57, and walked in. She had
had a moment of fear lest there should be a servant in the rooms, but it
was a fear which proved groundless. She had found herself in a tiny
hall, with closed doors in front and on the right of her, and an open
one on the left leading into a small, plainly furnished but comfortable
sitting-room. This she entered, and closed the door behind her. At last
she was in Norris Vine's sanctum.

She drew a little breath, half of relief, half of excitement, and then
repenting at the closed do