asant little Kentish town half a dozen miles away, pulled up at
the station, and on alighting handed the reins to the young groom, told
him to wait for an hour, and if she were not back by the next train to
drive home.

Then entering the station she took a ticket for London, too deeply
intent upon her own thoughts to notice who followed her into the office;
and as soon as the train drew up, she stepped into an empty compartment
and drew up the glasses, to go on thinking out her further proceedings,
for her mind was now made up.

She had ample means, her brother having well provided her with a banking
account of her own, and her intention was to go straight to the town
house, pack up a couple of trunks, and take the night boat for Dieppe,
and thence go on to Switzerland, where she could extend her projects,
though where she went mattered little so long as she could avoid another
meeting with her pursuer.

The train was gathering speed for its straight run on to the terminus,
and she was congratulating herself upon her decision, and then thinking
that there was only one difficulty in her way--the opposition which
might arise on the part of the old housekeeper. But she concluded that
a little firmness would suffice; if not, a frank avowal of the dangers
she foresaw would win the old woman to her side, and then, once free
from the trammels which surrounded her, she would perhaps regain her
peace of mind, so broken since that terrible night when she fetched
Chester to her brother.

"And he will soon forget me and return to her who is his by right, and
then--"

She uttered a wild cry of alarm and shrank back for a moment or two in
the corner of the compartment, for, in spite of the great speed at which
they were going, the carriage window on her left was suddenly darkened,
the door thrown open, and a man climbed in, fastening the door again,
and then sinking panting upon the opposite seat.

"You here?" she cried wildly. "Oh! what madness!"

"Yes, hardly the work of a sane man, with a train going at express
speed."

"You might have been killed!" cried Marion, trying hard to be firm, and
descending to commonplaces.

"Yes, it seemed very likely once, for the carriages were a good way
apart; but if I had been, what then? Not the first man who has died for
a woman's sake."

"Why have you come?" she said hurriedly.

"Why have I come?" he replied contemptuously. "You ask that! Well, let
me tell you; because I kne