arcely a man in London
would not have jumped at such a chance?"

"Very likely," Tavernake answered. "I have no experience in such
matters. I only know that I am going to do something else."

"Something you want to do very much?" she whispered.

"I am going down to a little music-hall in Whitechapel," Tavernake said,
"and I am going to meet your sister and I am going to put her in a cab
and take her to have some supper, and I am going to worry her until she
promises to be my wife."

"You are certainly a devoted admirer of the family," she laughed.
"Perhaps you were in love with her all the time."

"Perhaps I was," he admitted.

She shook her head.

"I don't believe it," she said. "I think you were quite fond of me once.
You have such absurdly old-fashioned ideas or I think that you would be
fond of me now."

Tavernake rose to his feet.

"I am going," he declared. "This will be good-bye. To-morrow I am going
to British Columbia."

The laughter faded for a moment from her face. She was suddenly serious.

"Don't go," she begged. "Listen. I know I am not good like Beatrice, but
I do like you--I always did. I suppose it is that wonderful truthfulness
of yours. You are a different type from the men one meets. I am rather
a reckless person. It is such a comfort sometimes to meet any one like
you. You seem such an anchorage. Stay and talk to me for a little time.
Take me out to-night. You asked me to go with you once, you know, and I
would not. To-night it is I who ask you."

He shook his head slowly.

"This is good-bye!" he said, firmly. "I suppose, after all, you were not
unkind to me in those days, but you taught me a very bitter lesson. I
came to you to-day in fear and trembling. I was afraid, perhaps, that
the worst was not over, that there was more yet to come. Now I know that
I am free."

She stamped her foot.

"You shall not go away like that," she declared.

He smiled.

"Do you think I do not understand?" he continued. "It is only because
I am able to go, because the touch of your fingers, that look in your
eyes, do not drive me half mad now, that you want me to stay. You would
like to try your powers once more. I think not. I am satisfied that I am
cured indeed, but perhaps it is safer to risk nothing."

She pointed to the door.

"Very well, then," she ordered, "you can go."

He bowed, and already his fingers were on the handle. Suddenly she
called to him.

"Leonard! Leonard!"

He turned