alcolm is slowly dying, dear, and that your
coming might save his life."

"I'll go," Myra said, drawing in her breath with a hiss; and then to
herself, "If he despises me for the act, well, I must bear it, too--
while I am here."

An evening was fixed, one on which Guest felt sure he would be able to
catch his friend at the chambers, as being the preferable place, though,
failing this, there was the lodging in Sarum Street.

There was no occasion for inventing subterfuges. The admiral that night
dined at the club, and he troubled himself so little about the comings
and goings of his daughter and niece that, if he returned, he would only
consider that they had gone to some "at home," and retire to his bed.

The consequence was that the carriage was in waiting at eight, and Guest
arrived to act as guide.

"Strikes me, William," said Andrews, the butler, to the attendant
footman, "that our young lady would be doing more what's right if she
stopped at home."

"Ay, she do look bad, sir."

"She does, William," said Andrew, with a little stress on the "does."

"Twice over me and you has made preparations to have her married, and it
strikes me that the next time we have to do with any public proceedings
it will be to take her to her long home."

"They're a-coming down, Mr Andrews," whispered the footman as, in
evening dress and cloak, Guest brought down Myra, looking very white in
her mufflings, and as if she were in some dream.

Guest handed her into the carriage, and returned for Edie, who was
flushed and agitated.

"You won't think any the worse of me for this, Percy, will you?" she
whispered.

His reply was a tender pressure of the little hand which rested upon his
arm.

Matters having been intrusted to Guest he directed the coachman to draw
up beside the old court in Counsel Lane, and upon the footman opening
the door, and the ladies being handed out, he looked at them in wonder,
and asked his fellow-servant what game he thought was up as the trio
passed into a gloomy looking alley, at whose corner was a robe-maker's
shop with two barristers' wigs on blocks in the window.

But Guest knew what he was about. The courts and alleys about Benchers'
Inn were principally occupied by law writers, printers, and law
stationers, and deserted enough of an evening to render the passage
through of a couple of ladies in evening dress a matter likely to cause
little notice, especially as they might be taking a short cu