g to see
me--that night? Well, it was the things he said about Canada made me
do it. Of course I didn't want to go where he was going. But he said
that one could get to Canada for a few pounds, and it took about
nine days. And it was a fine place, and any one could find work. He'd
thought of it, he said, but as he had friends in Australia, he was
going there. And so, when he'd left the cottage, I thought--if, when
I came up to town--I--I did find what I expected--I'd take Carrie--and
go to Canada.'

Fenwick rose, and, thrusting his hands into his pockets, began to walk
up and down excitedly.

'And of course--as you expected it--you found it,' he said, bitterly.
'Who could ever have _conceived_ that a woman could act in such a way!
Why, I had been kissing your photograph the minute before! Lord Findon
had been there, to tell me my pictures were in the Academy all right,
and he'd given me five hundred pounds for them--and the cheque'--he
stopped in front of her, rapping the table with his finger for
emphasis--'the cheque was actually in the drawer!--under your
hand--where I'd left it. It was too late to catch the North post for a
letter to you, so I went out to tell one or two people, and on the way
I bought some things for you at a shop--prettinesses that I'd never
been able to give you. Why, I thought of nothing but you.'

His voice had risen to a cry. He stooped, bending over the table, his
haggard face close to hers.

She recoiled, and burst into a wild sob:

'John, I--I couldn't know!'

'Well, go on,' he said, abruptly, raising himself--'go on. You found
that picture in my room--I'll tell you about that presently--and you
wrote me the letter. Well, then you went back to Euston, and you sent
Daisy away. After that?'

His stern, sharp tone, which was really the result of a nerve-tension
hardly to be borne, scared her. It was with painful difficulty that
she collected her forces enough to meet his gaze and to reply.

'I took Carrie to Liverpool. We had to wait three days there. Then we
got on a steamer for Quebec. The voyage was dreadful. Carrie was ill,
and I was so--so miserable! We stopped at Quebec a little. But I felt
so strange there, with all the people speaking French--so we went
on to Montreal. And the Government people there who look after
the emigrants found me a place. I got work in an hotel--a sort of
housekeeper. I looked after the linen, and the servants, and after a
bit I learnt how to keep th