hurt us, and rub us the wrong
way."

"Perhaps not," he replied, laughing. "But Mr. Roberts and some of my
other brethren would tell a different tale. By the bye, would you care
to help another befogged mortal who is in the region you are safely out
of? The evolution theory is the difficulty, and, if you have time to
enter into his trouble, I think you could help him much better than I
can. If I could see him, I might tackle him; but I can't do it on paper.
You could, I think; and, as the fellow lives at the other side of the
world, one can do nothing except by correspondence."

Erica was delighted to undertake the task, and she was particularly
well fitted for it. Perhaps no one is really qualified for the post of
a clearer of doubts who has not himself faced and conquered doubts of a
similar nature.

So there was a new interest for her on that long, lonely evening, and,
as she waited for her father's return, she had time to think out quietly
the various points which she would first take up. By and by she slept a
little, and then, in the silence of the night, crept down to the lower
regions to add something to the tempting little supper which she had
ready in the green room. But time crept on, and in the silence she could
hear dozens of clocks telling each hour, and the train had been long
due, and still her father did not come.

At last she became too anxious to read or think to any purpose; she drew
aside the curtain, and, in spite of the cold, curled herself upon the
window seat with her face pressed close to the glass. Watching, in a
literal sense, was impossible, for there was a dense fog, if possible,
worse than the fog of the preceding Saturday, but she had the feeling
that to be by the window made her in some unaccountable way nearer to
her father, and it certainly had the effect of showing her that there
was a very good reason for unpunctuality.

The old square was as quiet as death. Once a policeman raised her hopes
for a minute by pacing slowly up the pavement, but he passed on, and all
was still once more except that every now and then the furniture in the
room creaked, making the eerie stillness all the more noticeable. Erica
began to shiver a little, more from apprehension than from cold. She
wished the telegram had come from any other town in England, and
tried in vain not to conjure up a hundred horrible visions of possible
catastrophes. At length she heard steps in the distance, and straining
her