half light, to follow them with its fierce eyes, as
though it were a living thing.

The landing where they stood looked upon the hall below, at the end of
which was Philip's study. Suddenly its door burst open, and Philip
himself passed through it, grasping a candlestick in one hand and some
parchments in the other. His features were dreadful to see, resembling
those of a dumb thing in torture; his eyes protruded, his livid lips
moved, but no sound came from them. He staggered across the hall with
terror staring from his face.

"Father, father," called Angela; but he took no notice--he did not
even seem to hear.

Presently they heard the candlestick thrown with a clash upon the hall
pavement, then the front door slammed, and he was gone, and at that
moment a great ruddy glow shot up the western sky, then a tongue of
flame, then another and another.

"See," said Angela, with a solemn laugh, "I did not appeal for help in
vain."

Isleworth Hall was in flames.

CHAPTER LVI

Arthur did not delay his departure from Madeira. The morning following
Mildred's ball he embarked on board a Portuguese boat, a very dirty
craft which smelt of garlic and rancid oil, and sailed for Lisbon. He
arrived there safely, and mooned about that city for a while, himself
a monument of serious reflections, and then struck across into Spain,
where he spent a month or so inspecting the historical beauties of
that fallen country. Thence he penetrated across the Pyrenees into
Southern France, which was pleasant in the spring months. Here he
remained another month, meeting with no adventures worthy of any note,
and improving his knowledge of the French language. Tiring at last of
this, he travelled to Paris, and went to the theatres, but found his
own thoughts too absorbing to allow of his taking any keen interest in
their sensationalisms; so, after a brief stay, he made his way up to
Brittany and Normandy, and went in for inspecting old castles and
cathedrals, and finally ended up his continental travels by spending a
week on the island rock of Saint Michel.

This place pleased him more than any he had visited. He liked to
wander about among the massive granite pillars of that noble
ecclesiastical fortress, and at night to watch the phosphoric tide
come rushing in with all the speed of a race-horse, over the wide
sands, which separate it from the mainland. There the thirty-first day
of May found him, and he b