idding him adieu, sending him her fondest
love, and telling him that he was right. She did write the letter, but
wrote it with a conviction that she would not have the strength to
send it to him. The reader may judge with what feeling she wrote the
following words:--

DEAR PAUL

You are right and I am wrong. Our marriage would not have been
fitting. I do not blame you. I attracted you when we were
together; but you have learned and have learned truly that you
should not give up your life for such attractions. If I have
been violent with you, forgive me. You will acknowledge that I
have suffered.

Always know that there is one woman who will love you better
than any one else. I think too that you will love me even when
some other woman is by your side. God bless you, and make you
happy. Write me the shortest, shortest word of adieu. Not to do
so would make you think yourself heartless. But do not come to
me.

For ever

W. H.

This she wrote on a small slip of paper, and then having read it
twice, she put it into her pocket-book. She told herself that she
ought to send it; but told herself as plainly that she could not bring
herself to do so. It was early in the morning before she went to bed
but she had admitted no one into the room after Montague had left her.

Paul, when he escaped from her presence, roamed out on to the
sea-shore, and then took himself to bed, having ordered a conveyance
to take him to Carbury Manor early in the morning. At breakfast he
presented himself to the squire. 'I have come earlier than you
expected,' he said.

'Yes, indeed;--much earlier. Are you going back to Lowestoft?'

Then he told the whole story. Roger expressed his satisfaction,
recalling however the pledge which he had given as to his return. 'Let
her follow you, and bear it,' he said. 'Of course you must suffer the
effects of your own imprudence.' On that evening Paul Montague
returned to London by the mail train, being sure that he would thus
avoid a meeting with Mrs Hurtle in the railway-carriage.

CHAPTER XLVIII - RUBY A PRISONER

Ruby had run away from her lover in great dudgeon after the dance at
the Music Hall, and had declared that she never wanted to see him
again. But when reflection came with the morning her misery was
stronger than her wrath. What would life be to her now without her
lover? When she escaped from her grandfather's house she certainly h