ame, but 'tis seldom he has the
opportunity."

She left them, saying that if the Doctor had not returned by eight she
would serve dinner for Miss Warne alone.

"No, please, Mrs. MacFayden," begged Georgiana. "If my father has his
tray here I will see him to his bed. I really do not care for dinner at
all."

The housekeeper smiled. "The Doctor would na' be pleased wi' me, if I
let ye go dinnerless," she said. "But I'm thinkin' we'll see him soon.
Wull ye coom doon to the library, Miss Warne, when ye're ready? 'Tis the
door at the right o' the front entrance. The door on the left is the
waitin' room, an' the Doctor does na' keep office hours at nicht."

With a fast-beating heart Georgiana set about making ready for that
descent to the library. The whole affair was becoming more and more a
strain upon her nerves. If Doctor Craig had met them at the station it
would have been far easier for her than this. But here she was, actually
in his house, combing her hair in his guest-room, going down to dinner
at his table--and she had not seen or heard from him, except by
telegram, since the hour when he had given her hand that meaning
pressure and left her with her friends. It was an extraordinary
experience, to say the least.

She wondered how she should dress for dinner--the dinner that she might
eat alone! She had only her traveling suit and one simple little gray
silk, dyed from a white "Semi-Annual" and made very simply, with a wide
collar and cuffs of white net. Anybody but Georgiana would have looked
like a Quakeress in the gray silk, but with her dark hair and warm
colouring she succeeded only in imitating a young nun but just removed
from scenes of worldly gayety! She decided that the hour and the
occasion called for this frock, and put it on with fingers which shook a
little.

Eight o'clock. She dared wait no longer, so, making sure that her
father, having eaten and drunk, was resting luxuriously on his bed, she
opened her door. The house seemed very quiet, and she went slowly along
the upper hall, and after pausing a moment at the top of the fine
staircase with its white spindles and mahogany rail, she began to
descend. The steps were heavily padded and her footfall made no sound;
therefore, as she afterward realized, a very close watch must have been
kept, for the moment she came in sight of the open library door a figure
appeared there.

The next moment Jefferson Craig had crossed the hall and was standing at