rrace again, and was admitted to an ordinary lodging-house
parlour, where, with tea on the table, Mrs. Woolstan awaited him. The
sea air had evidently done her good; she looked younger and prettier
than when Dyce last saw her, and the tea-gown she wore became her well.

"How did you know where I was?" she began by asking, rather distantly.

Lashmar told her in detail.

"But why were you so anxious to see me?--Sugar, I think?"

"It's a long story," he replied, looking t her from under his eyebrows,
"and I don't much care or telling it in a place like' this, where all
we say can be heard by anyone on the other side of the door."

Iris was watching his countenance. The cold politeness with which she
had received him had become a very transparent mask; beneath it showed
eager curiosity and trembling hope.

"We can go out, if you like," she said.

"And most likely meet those singular friends of yours. Who on earth are
they?"

"Very nice people," replied Mrs. Woolstan, holding up her head.

"They are intolerably vulgar, and you must be aware of it. I felt
ashamed to see you among them. What are you doing at a place like this?
Why have you shut up your house?"

"Really," exclaimed Iris, with a flutter, "that is my business."

Lashmar's nervous irritation was at once subdued. He looked timidly at
the indignant face, let his eyes fall, and murmured an apology.

"I've been going through strange things, and I'm not quite master of
myself. The night before last"--his voice sunk to a hollow note--"I
very nearly took poison."

"What do you mean? Poison?"

Mrs. Woolstan's eyes widened in horror. Lashmar regarded her with a
smile of intense melancholy.

"One thing only kept me from it. I remembered that I was in your debt,
and I felt it would be too cowardly."

"What has happened?--Come and sit near the window; no one could hear us
talking here. I have been expecting to read of your election. Is it
something to do with Lady Ogram's death? I have wanted so much to know
about that, and how it affected you."

A few questions gave Dyce the comfortable assurance that Iris had not
seen Mrs. Toplady for a long time. Trouble with servants, she said,
coming after a slight illness, had decided her to quit her house for
the rest of the summer, and the Barkers persuaded her to come to
Gorleston. When Leonard left school for his holidays, she meant to go
with him to some nice place.

"But do tell me what you mean by those drea