what it is?"

"No. Please trust me; it is my life as well as yours, remember."

"My queen!" he said. "Yes, I will do that, or anything else you wish, only
_never, never_ good-bye. I am a man, after all, and have numbers of
influential relations. I can do something else in life just be a
Guardsman, and we shall get enough money to live quite happily on, though
we might not be very grand people. I will never say good-bye--do you hear?
Promise me you will never say it, either."

I was silent.

"Evangeline, darling!" he cried in anguish, his eyebrows right up in the
old way, while two big tears welled up in his beautiful eyes. "My God!
won't you answer me?"

"Yes, I will," I said, and I threw all my reserve to the winds, and flung
my arms round his neck, passionately.

"I love you with my, heart and soul, and pray to God we shall never say
good-bye."

When I got back to Claridge's, for the first time in my life I felt a
little faint. Lady Merrenden had driven me back herself, and left me with
every assurance of her devotion and affection for us. I had said good-bye
to Robert for the day at Carlton House Terrace.

They do not yet know me, either of them, quite; or what I can and will
do.

CLARIDGE'S

_Monday night._

I felt to carry out my plan I must steady my mind a little, so I wrote my
journal, and that calmed me.

Of all the things I was sure of in the world, I was most sure that I loved
Robert far too well to injure his prospects. On the other hand, to throw
him away without a struggle was too cruel to both of us. If mamma's mother
was nobody, all the rest of my family were fine old fighters and
gentlemen, and I really prayed to their shades to help me now.

Then I rang and ordered some iced water, and when I had thought deeply for
a few minutes while I sipped it, I sat down to my writing-table. My hand
did not shake, though I felt at a deadly tension. I addressed the envelope
first, to steady myself:

"To
"His Grace
"The Duke of Torquilstone,
"Vavasour House,
"St. James's, S.W."

Then I put that aside.

"I am Evangeline Travers who writes," I began, without any preface;
"and I ask if you will see me--either here in my sitting-room this
evening, or I will come to you at Vavasour House. I understand your
brother, Lord Robert, has told you