up in front of Lord
Cheisford's brougham, was a carriage with a tall footman standing facing
me. I recognized him and the liveries in a moment. It was the
Rowchester carriage. Some one from Rowchester House was even now with
Lord and Lady Chelsford.

Fresh complications, then! Had the Duke come to see me off, or had his
suspicions been aroused? Was he even now insisting upon an explanation
with Lord Cheisford? The minutes passed, and I began to get restless
and anxious. Then the door opened, and Lord Chelsford entered alone.
He came over at once to my side. He was looking perplexed and a little
annoyed.

"Ducaine," he said, "Lady Angela Harberly is here."

I started, and I suppose my face betrayed me.

"Lady Angela--here?"

"And she wishes to see you," he continued. "Lady Chelsford is
chaperoning her to-night to Suffolk House, but she says that she should
have come here in any case. She believes that you are going to China."

"Did you tell her?" I asked.

"I have told her nothing," he answered. "The question is, what you are
to tell her. I understand, Ducaine, that Lady Angela was engaged to be
married to Colonel Ray."

"I believe that she is," I admitted.

"Then I do not understand her desire to see you," Lord Chelsford said.
"The Duke of Rowchester is my friend and relative, Ducaine, and I do not
see how I can permit this interview."

"And I," said a quiet thrilling voice behind his back, "do not know how
you are going to prevent it."

She closed the door behind her. She was so frail and so delicately
beautiful in her white gown, with the ropes of pearls around her neck,
the simply parted hair, and her dark eyes were so plaintive and yet so
tender, that the angry exclamation died away on Lord Cheisford's lips.

"Angela," he said, "Mr. Ducaine is here. You can speak with him if you
will, but it must be in my presence. You must not think that I do not
trust you--both of you. But I owe this condition to your father."

She came over to me very timidly. She seemed to me so beautiful, so
exquisitely childish, that I touched the fingers of the hand she gave me
with a feeling of positive reverence.

"You have come to wish me God-speed," I murmured. "I shall never forget
it."

"You are really going, then?"

"I am going for a little time out of your life, Lady Angela," I
answered. "It is necessary: Lord Chelsford knows that. But I am not
going in disgrace. I am very thankful to be able to tell you that."