stairs; but he heard nothing, and he seemed to see nothing, as he strode
along the street, and, rushing into his hotel, shut himself up in his
room. "This intolerable anguish!" he cried; "it must have an end. To a
passion which itself is the merest despair, must I add the maddest of
jealousies?"

That day, after the dinner was concluded, Winston accepted an invitation
which Mrs. Jackson had often pressed upon him in vain, to adjourn to her
sitting-room, and partake of a dessert there. He accepted the
invitation. It sealed his fate; and he intended that it should. He left
that room--he, the lover of Mildred--the affianced of Louisa Jackson!

The next morning--it was a sleepless night that intervened--he paid his
respects, with the due appearance of felicity upon his countenance, to
Mrs. Jackson and her daughter. It was into their carriage he was now to
enter, to take one of those drives in the environs which he had so often
enjoyed with Mildred. It was to _their_ admiration he was now to listen
and respond.

The party was preparing to start, when a message was brought to them
that two ladies were below who wished to speak to Mr. Winston. Mrs.
Jackson, all anxiety to be polite, told the servant to show the ladies
into her room. Immediately after Miss Bloomfield and Mildred Willoughby
were ushered up stairs.

Never was Mildred looking more beautiful, for never was she so happy in
her life. The name even of Mrs. Jackson she had never heard pronounced;
and, not aware of being in the apartment of that lady, but considering
she was in some room destined for the reception of visiters, she merely
made to the ladies that slight curtsey by which the presence of a
stranger is recognised, and immediately turned and addressed herself to
Winston.

"Congratulate me!" she said. "Congratulate me!--But first I must repeat
my message from Mr. Bloomfield, who insists upon it that you break
through your unsocial rule, and dine with him to-day. And now again
congratulate me! My father has returned from India. It was he whom we
called the mysterious stranger. As to the conflicting reports which had
been spread of him in England, you shall hear all at leisure. But he has
returned!--and he has returned wealthy and amiable."

There was a slight tremor in her voice as she uttered these last words.
That slight tremor, it was the response now given to certain passionate
but desponding declarations, which he had so often half uttered in her
e