, faith, I've had a chase. Do you
remember Jasper Caldicott, the parson who went out with us on the
_Scindia_ eight years ago?"

"Yes, I remember him." She spoke with a strong effort. Her lips felt
stiff and cold.

"He has a parish Whitechapel way," said Hone. "I only found him out this
morning. I wanted to bring him to see you."

"Yes?" At his abrupt pause she moved slightly. "But he wouldn't come?"

"He will come some day," said Hone. "But he had some scruple about
accompanying me there and then, as I wished. In fact, he wants you to
visit him instead."

"Yes?" She almost whispered the word. She was holding the mantelpiece
with both hands to steady her trembling limbs.

"Sure, there's nothing to alarm you at all," Hone said. "It'll soon be
over. He wants you to do him the honour of being married in his church
and there's a taxi below waiting to take you."

"Now?" She turned and faced him, white to the lips.

"Yes, now! By special licence." Sternly he made reply, and again she
felt as though the fire in his eyes scorched her.

"And if I--refuse?" She stood up to her full height, flinging her fear
from her with a royal gesture that was almost a challenge.

But Hone was ready for her. Hone, the gentle, the kind, the chivalrous,
stepped suddenly forth from his garden of virtues with level lance to
meet her.

"By the powers," he said, and the words came from between his teeth, "I
wonder you dare to ask me that!"

She laughed, but her laughter was slightly hysterical, and in an instant
he seized and pressed his advantage.

"It is the end of the game," he grimly told her. "And you are beaten.
You told me once that you didn't always pay your debts. But, by Heaven,
you shall pay this one!"

By sheer weight he beat down her resistance. Against her will, in spite
of her utmost effort, she gave way before him.

A moment she stood in silence. Then, "So be it!" she said, and, turning,
left him.

When she joined him again she was so thickly veiled that he could not
see her face. She preceded him without a word into the lift, and they
went down in utter silence to the waiting taxi. Then side by side
through the gloom as though they travelled through space, a myriad
lights twinkling all about them, the rush and roar of a universe in
their ears, but they two alone in an atmosphere that none other
breathed.

It was a journey that neither ever afterwards calculated by time. It was
incalculable as the flight of a me