The night was chilly, and they had a fire. Hope lay on a sofa before it,
and Ronnie sat and smoked. Both were luxuriously comfortable till a hand
rapped smartly upon the window and made them jump.

Ronnie exclaimed with a violence that astonished Hope, and started to
his feet. She also sprang up eagerly, almost expecting to see her
_fiance_. But her expectations were quickly dashed.

"It's that fellow Hyde!" Ronnie said, looking at her rather doubtfully.
"You don't mind?"

Her face fell, but he did not wait for her reply. He stepped across to
the window, and admitted the visitor.

Hyde sauntered in with a casual air.

He came across to her, smiling in the way she loathed, and almost before
she realized it he had her hand in a tight, impressive grip, and his
pale eyes were gazing full into hers.

"You look as fresh as an English rose," was his deliberate greeting.

Hope freed her hand with a slight, involuntary gesture of disgust. Till
the moment of seeing him again she had almost forgotten how utterly
objectionable he was.

"I am quite well," she said coldly. "I think I shall go to bed, Ronnie.
I'm tired."

Ronnie was pouring some whisky into a glass. She noticed that his hand
was very shaky.

"All right," he said, not looking at her.

"You're not going to desert us already?" said Hyde; still, as she felt,
mocking her with his smile. "It will be dark, indeed, when Hope is
withdrawn."

He went to the door, but paused with his hand upon it. She looked at him
with the wild shrinking of a trapped creature in her eyes.

"Never mind," he laughed softly; "I am very tenacious. Even now--you
will scarcely believe it--I still have--Hope!"

He opened the door with the words, and, as she passed through in
unbroken silence, her face as white as marble, there was something in
his words, something of self-assured power, almost of menace, that
struck upon her like a breath of evil. She would have stayed and defied
him had she dared. But somehow, inexplicably, she was afraid.

VII

THE SCRAPE

Very late that night there came a low knock at Hope's door. She was
lying awake, and she instantly started up on her elbow.

"Who is it?" she called.

The door opened softly, and Ronnie answered her.

"I thought you would like to say good-night, Hope," he said.

"Oh, come in, dear!" Hope sat up eagerly. She had not expected this
attention from Ronnie. "I'm wide awake. I'm so glad you came!"

He slipped into th