d made up his mind to watch
the house until he obtained an interview with Marion.

He shrugged his shoulders as he entered his own door, and shut himself
in his consulting-room, to sit for an hour trying to grow calmer; but
there was a wild throbbing in his excited brain which he could not
master, and try how he would, even to the extent of taking a sedative,
he could not keep down the feeling of mad exultation at having at last
discovered the place.

"I shall see her again," he muttered; "I shall see her again!"

A pair of soft dark eyes in a sweet, pale face seemed to rise
reproachfully before him, but he mentally turned from the piteous look.

"I cannot help it. Fate--fate," he muttered; and at last, after
mastering the intense desire to rush off and try and bribe the servants
into speaking, he grew calmer, and obeyed the summons sent by the maid,
joining his aunt and sister in the drawing-room, and afterwards formally
taking the old lady down to the silent meal.

Poor Aunt Grace's plan was not succeeding.

"Don't speak to him, Laura," she had said. "It will show how we despise
him for his disgraceful conduct, and make him the sooner come creeping
to our knees in sackcloth and ashes."

But the days had glided on, and Chester had bought no sackcloth and had
not told the cook to sift him any ashes. For the perfect silence with
which he was treated was the one great satisfaction now of his life.

That night he found his sister watching him once, and as he met her eyes
there was for the moment a feeling of uneasiness akin to remorse; but it
passed off directly, swept away by the exciting thought that he had at
last attained the goal of his desires, and must now sooner or later
encounter Marion.

A week then passed, and he was still no farther, when one evening as he
turned into Highcombe Street, he saw a carriage at the door; and a
minute later three ladies in evening dress came and stepped in, the
footman mounted to his place, and the horses sprang off.

"The brougham I was fetched in," muttered Chester, and hailing a cab he
said sharply, "Follow that carriage at a short distance till I tell you
to stop."

He was not surprised at the direction taken by the carriage in front,
which was kept just in sight till it turned into Bow Street, when
Chester signed to his driver to stop, and sprang out, turning the corner
just in time to see the carriage slowly passing in its turn through the
gateway leading under