sorry you were kept waiting,' he said, hoarsely.

She made some commonplace reply, and they shook hands. Mrs. Flint
looked at them curiously, and withdrew again into the back premises.

Fenwick turned and walked in front of Eugenie towards the table from
which he had risen. She looked at him in sudden horror--arrested--the
words she had come to speak stifled on her lips. Then a quick impulse
made her shut the door behind her. He turned again, bewildered, and
raised his hand to his head.

'My God!' he said, in a low voice; 'I oughtn't to have let you come in
here. Go away--please go away.'

Then she saw him totter backward, raise an overcoat which hung across
the back of a chair, and throw it over something lying on the table.
Terror possessed her; his aspect was so ghastly, his movements so
strange. She flew to him, and took his hand in both hers.

'No, no--don't send me away! My friend--my dear friend--listen to me.
You look so ill--you've been in trouble! If I'd only known!
But I've thought of you always--I've prayed for you. And
listen--_listen_!--I've brought you good news.'

She paused, still holding him. Her eyes were bright with tears, but
her mouth smiled. He looked at her, trembling. Her pale charm, her
pleading grace moved him unbearably; this beauty, this tenderness--the
sudden apparition of them in this dark room--unmanned him altogether.

But she came nearer.

'We got home only this morning. It was a sudden wish of my
father's--he thought Italy wasn't suiting him. We came straight
from Rome. I wrote to you by this morning's post. Then--this
afternoon--after we'd settled my father--I drove to Lincoln's Inn
Fields. And I found them so excited--just sending off a messenger to
you. A letter had arrived by the afternoon post, an hour after you
left the office. I have it here--they trusted it to me. Oh, dear Mr.
Fenwick, listen to me! They are on the track--it's a _real_ clue this
time! Your wife has been in Canada--they know where she was three
months ago--it's only a question of time now. Oh! and they told me
about the theatre--how _wonderful_! Oh! I believe they're not far
off--know it--I feel it!'

He had fallen on his chair; she stood beside him.

'And you've been ill,' she said, sadly, 'and in great distress, I'm
afraid--about money, was it? Oh, if I'd only known! But you'll let me
make that right, won't you?--you couldn't refuse me that? And think!
you'll have them again--your wife--your little