entreat your pardon,
my--my friend. This is beyond anything I ever dreamed of; and--don't
come to the library to-night, please. There's no hurry about those
pages; to-morrow night will be better."

They were at the little gateway now, and he released her arm.
Over-against them on the opposite side of the street two men, skulking
back in the shadows of a dark entrance-way, edged a little farther
forward, watched him as he restored the bundles, watched him as he took
again her hand, then lifted his hat and bowed over it as he might have
done reverence to a queen, watched her as she tripped within-doors, and
then Forrest again as he slowly turned and walked thoughtfully away.

"That's the man, then?" asked, in cautious, querulous tone, the shorter,
slighter of the two.

"That's him--damn him! I can feel his kick to this day."

"And it was with him--in his room--she took refuge? you could swear to
it?"

"'Course I could, on a stack of Bibles."

And this was early in the week of Mr. Elmendorf's conversation with Aunt
Lawrence, only forty-eight hours prior to the sudden orders which
prevented Mr. Forrest's dining at the Allisons' and escorting Miss
Florence to the opera, and which hurried him miles away on a mission
whereof only two other men at head-quarters knew the purport,--the
general and his chief of staff. There was good reason for the
aides-de-camp an "understrappers," as Elmendorf referred to them, being
even more mysterious than usual.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VIII.

There was a month or more during the late winter in which Mr. Elmendorf,
cold-shouldered out of official society at department head-quarters,
became quite the managing director of the Allison mansion. John Allison,
with a party of fellow-magnates, was on a long tour of inspection over
the southernmost of the transcontinental lines, and, finding home life a
trifle uncongenial just now, owing to some discussions with Aunt
Lawrence, finding, too, that the wives and daughters of other magnates
were to accompany them on the trip, sojourning days at a time in many of
the charming resorts among the mountains or along the Pacific seaboard,
Miss Allison eagerly accepted their invitation to be one of the party.
Mrs. Lawrence was to remain in charge at home, and was permitted to send
for and receive under her wing her own graceless duckling, with the
distinct understanding that he was in no wise to be allowed to interfere
with Cary's studies or