e nodded her head.

CHAPTER V

That evening, Traill removed the first pillar in the structure which
Sally had built--the Temple of her security. Notwithstanding all
Janet's advice, heedless, utterly, of Janet's point of view which
had been held before her eyes on almost every occasion on which they
had met during the last three years, she persisted in believing more
surely in the mooring of her life to Traill's, so long as no mention
of settlement was ever suggested.

There was full reason on her side for this. Unable to accept
conditions as Janet would have had her take them--the abandoning of
one master for the service of another--she knew that so long as Traill
kept her by his side without a word of agreement, his honour as the
gentleman she always knew him to be would remain as binding as any
sanction of the Church.

On this evening, then, when he returned from his visit in Sloane
Street, they went together to the little restaurant in Soho where
they had taken their first dinner together.

There was Berthe and Marie--there was Madame--there was
Alexandre--all still working together with the precious regularity
of the Dutch clock.

"Bon soir, monsieur--bon soir, madame." Not an inflection was
changed, not a note was altered. The firm hand of necessity had wound
them up day after day, all those three years, and they had ticked
together and tocked together to the swing of the pendulum of fortune
ever since.

"I shall always love this place," said Sally cheerfully, as they sat
down at the same table--_sous l'escalier_.

"Why?"

"Because you first brought me here." She stretched her hand across
the table and lovingly touched his fingers. She was happy, then.

"You're not sorry that I did?" he asked seriously.

"Sorry--no! How could I be?" Trouble came too quickly into her eyes.
It left them slower than it came.

"Do you remember what you said to me"--he reminded her--"just before
we went on to my rooms?"

"I said so many things."

"No--oh, you didn't. You said so few; but you said one that struck
in--deep--straight home."

"What was that?"

"You said I was a gentleman."

"So I believed then, when I first saw you. So I know now, after these
three years and more."

"You know it--do you?"

"Yes."

"Yet I've never said anything to you about what I intend to give you
for yourself, in your own right."

Pain struck into Sally's eyes. Her lips parted in fear and
anticipation.

"Have you