atch him from the window. Just as he left the
door of the hotel, a small child fell face downward on the pavement on
the opposite side of the road and began to cry bitterly. Raeburn crossed
over and picked up the small elf; they could hear him saying: "There,
there, more frightened than hurt, I think," as he brushed the dust from
the little thing's clothes.

"How exactly like father!" said Erica, smiling; "he never would let us
think ourselves hurt. I believe it is thanks to him that Tom has grown
up such a Stoic, and that I'm not a very lachrymose sort of being."

A little later they started for church, but toward the end of the Psalms
Donovan felt a touch on his arm. He turned to Erica; she was a white as
death, and with a strange, glassy look in her eyes.

"Come," she said in a hoarse whisper, "come out with me."

He thought she felt faint, but she walked steadily down the aisle. When
they were outside she grasped his arm and seemed to make a great effort
to speak naturally.

"Forgive me for disturbing you," she said, "but I have such a dreadful
feeling that something is going to happen. I feel that I must go to my
father."

Donovan thought that she was probably laboring under a delusion. He knew
that she was always very anxious about her father and that Ashborough,
owing to various memories, was exactly the place where this anxiety
would be likely to weigh upon her. He thought, too, that Raeburn was
very likely right and that she was rather overdone by the strain of
those long weeks of solitary attendance. But he was much too wise to
attempt to reason away her fears; he knew that nothing but her father's
presence would set her at rest, and they walked as fast as they could to
the Town Hall. He was just turning down a street which led into the High
Street when Erica drew him instead in the direction of a narrow byway.

"Down here," she said, walking straight on as though she held some
guiding clew in her hand.

He was astonished as she could not possibly have been in this part of
the town before. Moreover, her whole bearing was very strange; she was
still pale and trembling, and her ungloved hands felt as cold as ice
while, although he had given her his arm, he felt all the time that she
was leading him.

At length a sound of many voices was heard in the distance. Donovan felt
a sort of thrill pass through the hand that rested on his arm, and Erica
began to walk more quickly than ever. A minute more, and th