tered the room, re-lit the gas, and noiselessly proceeded to clear a
portion of the table, on which she placed writing materials. Then she
went into her bedroom and fetched a little drawer in which she kept her
valuables; and the first thing she did was to take out an old-fashioned
gold ring she had brought with her from Naples. She put the ring in an
envelope, and (while her eyelids were still heavy with tears, and her
cheeks wan and worn) she wrote outside--"_For Estelle._"

CHAPTER XVI.

AN AWAKENING.

London is a dreary-looking city on a Sunday morning, especially on a
Sunday morning in November; people seem to know how tedious the hours
are going to be, and lie in bed as long as they decently can; the
teeming and swarming capital of the world looks as if it had suddenly
grown lifeless. When Lionel got up, there was a sort of yellow darkness
in the air; hardly a single human being was visible in the Green Park
over the way; a solitary saunterer, hands deep in the pockets of his
overcoat, who wandered idly along the neglected pavement, had the
appearance of having been out all night, and of not knowing what to do
with himself, now that what passed for daylight had come. All of a
sudden there flashed into the brain of this young man standing by the
French window a yearning to get away from this dark and dismal
town--there came before him a vision of clear air, of wind-swept waves,
with an after-church promenade of fashionable folk in which he might
recognize the welcome face of many a friend. He looked at his watch;
there was yet time; he would hurry through his breakfast and catch the
10.45 to Brighton.

But was there nothing else prompting this unpremeditated resolve to get
away down to Victoria station? Not some secret hope that he might
perchance descry Lady Cunyngham and her daughter among the crowd
swarming on to the long platform? They had not definitely told him at
the theatre that they were returning the next morning; but was it not
just possible--or, rather, extremely probable? And surely he might
presume on their mutual acquaintance so far as to get into the same
railway-carriage and have some casual chatting with them on the way
down? He had been as attentive as possible to them on the previous
evening; and they had seemed pleased. And he had tried to arouse in Miss
Honnor's mind some recollection of the closer relationship which had
existed between her and him in the solitudes of far Strathaiv