xt morning, the man he dreaded would
be safely buried in the wildest part of the Lake District--he might
even go off to India again and never learn the wrong he had suffered!
At all events, Mark was saved for a time. He was thankful, deeply
thankful now that he had resisted that mad impulse to confession.

Vincent had dropped into an arm-chair with his back to the window,
brooding over his shattered ambitions; all his proud self-confidence
in his ability to win fame for the woman he loved was gone now; he
felt that he had neither the strength nor the motive to try again.
If--if this he had heard was true, he must be an exile, with lower
aims and a blanker life than those he had once hoped for.

All at once Mark, as he stood at the window with Caffyn, stepped back
with a look of helpless terror.

'What the deuce is it now?' said the other under his breath.

Mark caught Caffyn's elbow with a fierce grip; a carriage had driven
up; they could see it plainly still in the afternoon light, which had
only just begun to fade.

'Do you see?' muttered Mark thickly. 'She's in it; she looked up--and
saw _me_!'

Caffyn himself was evidently disturbed. 'Not, not Mabel?' he
whispered. 'Worse! it's Dolly--and _she'll_ come up. She'll see
_him_!'

The two stood there staring blankly at each other, while Holroyd was
still too absorbed to have the least suspicion that the future
happiness or misery of himself and others was trembling just then in
the balance.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE WAY OF TRANSGRESSORS.

Dolly's mere appearance in the room would lead Vincent to suspect that
he had been deceived; her first words would almost inevitably expose
the fraud. She was coming up, nevertheless, and Mark felt powerless to
prevent her--he could only indulge himself in inwardly cursing
Caffyn's ingenuity and his own weakness for having brought him to such
a pass as this. Caffyn was shaken for the moment, but he soon
recovered himself. 'Keep cool, will you,' he whispered (he might have
shouted, for Vincent saw and heard nothing just then): 'you stay here
and keep _him_ amused--don't let him go near the window!' Then he
added aloud, 'I'll go and see if I can find that Bradshaw. Almost
certain I didn't bring it with me; but if you saw it there, why'--and
he was gone.

Mark caught up a paper with a rapid, 'Oh! I say, Vincent, _did_ you
see this correspondence about competitive examinations? Of course you
haven't, though--just listen the