She spoke in low, stifled tones, and felt her way noiselessly to a chair
far removed from the captain in the darkest part of the room. Sitting
near the window, he could just discern the dim outline of her dress, he
could just hear the faint accents of her voice. For the last two days
he had seen nothing of her except during their morning walk. On
that afternoon he had found his wife crying in the little backroom
down-stairs. She could only tell him that Magdalen had frightened
her--that Magdalen was going the way again which she had gone when the
letter came from China in the terrible past time at Vauxhall Walk.

"I was sorry to her that you were ill to-day, from Mrs. Wragge," said
the captain, unconsciously dropping his voice almost to a whisper as he
spoke.

"It doesn't matter," she answered quietly, out of the darkness. "I am
strong enough to suffer, and live. Other girls in my place would have
been happier--they would have suffered, and died. It doesn't matter; it
will be all the same a hundred years hence. Is he coming again tomorrow
morning at seven o'clock?"

"He is coming, if you feel no objection to it."

"I have no objection to make; I have done with objecting. But I should
like to have the time altered. I don't look my best in the early
morning---I have bad nights, and I rise haggard and worn. Write him a
note this evening, and tell him to come at twelve o'clock."

"Twelve is rather late, under the circumstances, for you to be seen out
walking."

"I have no intention of walking. Let him be shown into the parlor--"

Her voice died away in silence before she ended the sentence.

"Yes?" said Captain Wragge.

"And leave me alone in the parlor to receive him."

"I understand," said the captain. "An admirable idea. I'll be out of the
way in the dining-room while he is here, and you can come and tell me
about it when he has gone."

There was another moment of silence.

"Is there no way but telling you?" she asked, suddenly. "I can control
myself while he is with me, but I can't answer for what I may say or do
afterward. Is there no other way?"

"Plenty of ways," said the captain. "Here is the first that occurs to
me. Leave the blind down over the window of your room upstairs before
he comes. I will go out on the beach, and wait there within sight of the
house. When I see him come out again, I will look at the window. If he
has said nothing, leave the blind down. If he has made you an
offer, draw th