e to
fall back upon her resources. Often enough she had regarded this
five-pound note as a barrier against the dread wolf that prowled about
so many of the doors of The Jail, against absolute destitution. But,
without a moment's hesitation, she folded it and put it in an envelope;
but now she did hesitate; she stood, biting her lip softly, her brows
knit. At last she wrote on a sheet of notepaper:

"I was wrong; you ought not to wait here. There is time for escape.
I would send you more than this; but it is all I have. Don't refuse
it, or I shall feel as if I were to blame for anything that may
happen to you. Oh, please go at once. Good-bye."

She was about to sign her name, but did not do so; it was better that
they should remain strangers to each other.

She went out softly, crossed the corridor on tip-toe, pushed the
envelope under his door, then knocked very gently and darted back to her
own room. Listening, with a heart that beat like a sledge-hammer falling
on an anvil, she heard him open the door, heard it close again; she
waited almost; breathlessly, and presently his step crossed the
corridor, and a piece of paper slid to her feet. She picked it up and
read:

"To refuse your generous gift, to disobey your command--for to me
it is an absolute command--would be ungrateful; would be worse. I
feel as if you had taken my life into your hands and had the right
to dispose of it. I am going. If I escape----Oh, I can't write any
more; but I know you will understand. You are the most wonderful
girl, the bravest, the most generous, in the whole world Good-bye."

Celia sank into the chair and, with the scrawl tightly clenched in her
hand, burst into tears. She sat and waited and listened; a quarter of an
hour dragged by; footsteps, some dragging and stealthy, some light and
free, passed up and down the stairs, and every step made her heart leap
with apprehension. Had he gone? Oh, why had he not gone? There was
danger in every moment. Presently she heard a faint, almost inaudible
knock at her door; she rose quickly and opened it a little way; no one
was standing outside, the corridor was empty; but she heard someone
descending the stairs below her. She took a few steps out and looked
down.

It was he. At the bend of the stairs, he paused and looked up; the light
of the murky, wire-globed gas-jet fell on him and she saw the pallor of
his face; saw something else, somet