uch he was in their power? Was this a taunt or a
chance shot?

"Oh no, I think not," he said. "You see, Miss Bryant, I'm used to
Bellevue street now. By the way, I shall dine out again to-morrow."

"What! again to-morrow?" Lydia compressed her lips and looked at him.
"Oh, very well: it is a fine thing to have friends make so much of one,"
she said as she turned to leave the room.

Percival came home late the next evening. As he passed Judith's
sitting-room the door stood wide and revealed its desolate emptiness.
Was she gone, absolutely gone? And he had been out and had never had a
word of farewell from her! Perhaps she had looked for him in the middle
of the day and wondered why he did not come. Down stairs he heard Lydia
calling to the girl: "Emma, didn't I tell you to put the 'Lodgings' card
up in the windows as soon as Miss Lisle was out of the house? It might
just as well have been up before. What d'ye mean by leaving it lying
here on the table? You're enough to provoke a saint--that you are! How
d'ye know a score of people mayn't have been looking for lodgings
to-day, and I dare say there won't be one to-morrow. If ever there was a
lazy, good-for-nothing--" The violent slamming of the kitchen-door cut
off the remainder of the discourse, but a shrill screaming voice might
still be heard. Percival was certain that the tide of eloquence flowed
on undiminished, though of articulate words he could distinguish none.
It is to be feared that Emma was less fortunate.

It was true, then. Judith was gone, and that without a farewell look or
touch of the hand to mark the day! They had lived for months under the
same roof, and, though days might pass without granting them a glimpse
of each other, the possibility of a meeting was continually with them.
It was only that night that Percival, sitting by his cheerless fireside,
understood what that possibility had been to him. He consoled himself as
well as he could for his ignorance of the hour of Judith's departure by
reflecting that Lydia would have followed her about with malicious
watchfulness, and would either have played the spy at their interview or
invented a parting instead of that which she had not seen. "She can't
gossip now," thought Percival.

Meanwhile, Lydia perceived, beyond a doubt, that they must have arranged
some way of meeting, since they had not taken the trouble to say
"Good-bye."

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

THE HARVESTING-ANTS OF FLORIDA.

[Illus