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They went slowly along the grassy walk where the late roses were blooming, whose fallen petals strewed the turf like summer They could hear the tinkling of the water-drops from the little fountain in the still atmosphere. They were both silent: Esther troubled by the thought of her own wickedness, and yet loving this man who walked beside her with all the passion of her heart; Stephen thoughtful too, but not in an unpleasant mood,— very confident of the future; only waiting for the moment in which he should speak the words that must needs be spoken by him today.

The moment came at last. He had taken Esther through the open window into the library-the room which she had looked at in wondering admiration that Sunday night. As she was standing by his side, looking down at a heap of sketches on the table, he put his arm gently round her, and drew her to his breast.

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My darling!' he said, 'I am going to leave England to-night.' She released herself from his encircling arm with a little cry— not of indignation, but of anguish.

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For ever?'

'Going away!' she exclaimed piteously. 'Who can tell?' he asked carelessly. Yes, Esther, I am going away. In spite of all the happy hours we have spent together, I am going away. I brought you here-to this empty old house-that I might tell you this quietly. I am going. Speak to me, my love, and say whether I am to go alone.'

She shook her head hopelessly, looking at him with fixed tearless eyes that went to his heart-such heart as he had-and seemed to wound him palpably.

'I don't understand you,' she faltered.

'My darling, you love me,' answered Stephen Lyne, and love is better than understanding. You love me, Esther; I have read the truth so many times in those sweet eyes. I am not a man to speak like this if I were not certain. My life, I swore to win you the first hour I saw your face. I have lived only for that one purpose since that time. My plans are all made. Your boor of a husband is out of the way to-night.'

'O, no, no!' she cried, with an agonised look, 'don't speak of him like that- so good, so true!'

'Good enough and true enough in his way, I daresay; but I can't forgive him for having stolen such a treasure. Why, by heaven, the man could have looked for nothing brighter or lovelier had he been a prince of the blood royal. My Esther, my precious one, you will go with me, will you not?'

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'Yes, sweetest, to the end of the world-to one of those golden lands you have loved so much to hear me talk about-from place to place, from one earthly paradise to another, wherever the world is

loveliest, and where you shall fancy yourself a princess, and be taken for a princess. Esther, is it yes or no?'

'If I say no,' she said, 'you will go away all the same, and I shall never see you any more?'

Why, yes, child, that will be best for both of us. You must be all the world or nothing to me, Esther, from to-day.'

'Nothing! O, my God, I could not bear that!' she cried passionately, with clasped hands.

He caught her in his arms once more, and kissed her on the lips. She felt as if truth and honour fled away from her for ever in that one fatal kiss.

'That means yes,' he said triumphantly. My darling, there is nothing but happiness before us!'

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'Happiness!' Esther echoed with a sob; I am the most wicked woman that ever lived; but I cannot part from you.' My dearest, I never thought you could. I have read your heart from the first, little one. And now listen to me, darling, for we have no time to lose. The limited mail leaves at 10.30. will take us to London in ample time for the morning mail to Dover; and we are not likely to be observed by that train. Meet me at the factory at a quarter before ten. There will be only the night-watchman there at that time, and I'll take care to get him out of the way before you come. You'll find me in the little counting-house on the first-floor, at the top of the stairs. You know the place, I suppose ?'

'Yes, I have been over it with Joshua.'

She shuddered as she pronounced that name. Her lover was just a little disconcerted by her white still face as she stood before him, with clasped hands and fixed despairing eyes. It was only natural, perhaps, that she should feel the unpleasanter aspect of her position. There are prejudices about these things.

'So be it then, sweet one. I think the factory will be the wisest place-dark, and quiet, and out of the way, and yet within a stone's throw of the station. We can get out by the little gate opening from the yard into Church-lane; so if any one should happen to see either of us go in, they're not likely to see us go out. Bring nothing with you, darling. We shall be in Paris to-morrow evening, and you can get everything there-an outfit worthy of my pretty one. You understand, Esther ?'

'Yes.'

At a quarter before ten.'

She bent her head silently.

Her deadly pallor frightened him, and he thought she was going to faint. There was an antique chest upon one of the tables ribbed with brass, a chest of glittering liqueur bottles and glasses heavily embossed with gold. Mr. Lyne filled one of the little glasses, and

forced the contents between Esther's pale lips. It was a sickly sticky compound, but had a dash of fiery spirit in it that brought a faint colour back to her face.

'Come, darling,' Stephen said gently; and they went back to the gardens, with the mastiff always at their heels.

Faithful old Pluto,' muttered Mr. Lyne, as the dog's big jaws were thrust affectionately into his hand, I suppose I must take you with me to-night, old fellow.'

To Esther that walk back to the cottage was like a dream. The sultry oppressive atmosphere, the level stretch of common land, with patches of dark water, and cattle grazing here and there, like a Dutch picture, seemed all a part of some shapeless horror in her own mind. And yet she went on, and had no thought of turning back, and refusing to tread the dark road which had newly opened to her. Weakly, blindly, helplessly she gave her life into this man's hands.

'Never to see him again, if I do not go with him to-night,' she repeated to herself, not once, but many times, when Stephen Lyne had left her alone in the little cottage, which seemed so despicable and dreary in its commonness, after the Mapledean library, with its carved-oak book-cases, rare cabinet pictures here and there, its scattered treasures of Venetian glass, and glow of light and colour upon everything.

All through the still summer twilight Esther Rainbow sat in utter idleness; not thinking-indeed her brain seemed to have lost all power of thought-but wondering feebly at her own guiltiness, with no heed for the future, except for that one thought-she would be with him-with no frivolous vain dream of her altered life, and the pleasures and luxuries that her rich lover would give her. Weak and wicked as she was, and much as she had admired Stephen Lyne's surroundings, she was at least superior to any consideration of these things. If he had been the poorest workman in the factory, and had wanted her to share a life of destitution with him, she must have obeyed him all the same.

As she sat in the summer twilight, with the evening shadows closing round her, there was no picture of the future in her mind : it was a blank, or worse than a blank-utter darkness-out of which arose one figure with a lurid light round its ghastly face—the face of her husband, looking at her in scornful abhorrence, as the vilest thing on earth. Did she think of her dead child in all those silent hours? Yes, once; and then she fell suddenly upon her knees and cried aloud,

'O God, I shall never go to heaven, where he is! I shall never see my baby any more!'

And yet there was no thought of turning back in her mind. Stephen Lyne had been an enchanter, holding her soul by some

mystic spell, his dominion over her could not have been stronger than it was.

At half-past eight o'clock she left the house, going out very softly, as if even in that empty place her guilty footfall might be heard.

She had forgotten all about her engagement to spend the evening and sleep with her mother-in-law, and had no thought of the surprise that might have been excited in the dowager's well-regulated mind by her non-appearance.

It was dark when she left the cottage, and there were no stars that night, nor the faintest glimmer from the moon, which did not rise until much later. Esther walked to the town with feverish haste, and the church-clocks were chiming the first quarter after nine when she came into the straggling lamplit road, where the country lost itself in the town. She turned aside into a dark lane, and walked there till the second quarter had chimed from the neighbouring church-tower, and then made her way to the factory by obscure alleys and narrow streets, which had been familiar to her in her dreary girlhood.

And where was Joshua Rainbow while his young wife was hurrying to destruction ? At Durnside, too far for succour, and untroubled by any doubt of her safety? No, Joshua was not at Durnside. The business, which might very well have taken him two days, had been hurried over in one: thanks to a series of fortunate accidents, such as finding the people he wanted at home, and ready for him, and so on, the money had been collected before nightfall, and Joshua free to return by an express which left Durnside at a quarter past seven, and did the forty miles in a little more than an hour. It was an expensive train, and Joshua had been told to travel by a cheap and slow one; but he could afford to pay the difference out of his own pocket, and he had a strange feeling of eagerness to return to his wife, in spite of the arrangements he had made for her safety.

There had been a sense of trouble upon him throughout the time of his absence, vague enough at its worst, but not to be shaken off. What was that expression in the face of Mr. Crosby, the manager, as he gave him his directions for the journey—a look that had puzzled Joshua somehow, and set him wondering in an uneasy way? It haunted him all through his day's work; and as the day waned, his desire to get home again grew into a burning fever.

Why had he been sent on this business? It was a mark of confidence, no doubt, to intrust him with this collection of money; but it seemed altogether motiveless, and the thought of it worried him now that he was far away from Mirkdale. Urged by this shapeless dread, and favoured by circumstance, he got through his work with wonderful rapidity; not wasting an hour upon his dinner, as

another man would have done, but refreshing himself only with a glass of ale and a biscuit; and thus it was that at half-past nine he was standing at the door of his mother's lodgings, with all his shadowy fears vanished out of his mind, and happy in the thought of giving his wife a pleasant surprise by this unexpected return. Hurried as he had been at Durnside, he had found time to buy a bonnet-ribbon and a little workbox for Esther.

The door of Mrs. Rainbow's sitting-room stood ajar this sultry evening. Joshua wondered at not hearing his wife's voice within; but then Esther had not been much of a talker of late, and his mother had fallen asleep perhaps, leaving his darling to amuse herself as best she might. He had looked up from the street, but had caught no glimpse of her at the window. Yet this was not strange, for Mrs. Rainbow cultivated quite a garden of geraniums and balsams on a little table in front of the casement.

There was no light in the room, late as it was. Joshua went in softly, expecting to find his mother slumbering peacefully in her easy-chair. But she was not asleep. She was standing by the window, looking down across the geraniums into the dull dark street-a tall solemn-looking figure in a scanty black gown.

'Where's Esther ?' Joshua asked breathlessly.

'She has not come here.'

'Not come ?'

'No, Joshua.

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Expect that

it all with her.

Did you expect that she would ?'

she would! why, of course, mother. I arranged She was to be with you at five, and to spend the night here as I said in that scrawl I left for you yesterday.'

'I did not expect her, Joshua,' his mother said in her cold hard voice. 'Esther had something better to do when you were out of the way than to come to an old woman like me. This is a very poor place for Esther Rainbow, with her hopes and expectations.'

'In God's name, what do you mean, mother?'

'What do I mean? What does everybody in Mirkdale mean, when they speak of your wife? Do you think that if you choose to shut your eyes, other people will shut theirs to oblige you?'

all.'

'Mother, what are you talking about?'

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About your wife, Joshua, who has brought shame upon us

'Are you mad?' he gasped; or am I?'

What, you've heard nothing of the neighbours' talk, then? You don't know how Stephen Lyne has been hanging about your place two and three hours at a time-alone with Esther?'

It's a lie!' Joshua cried fiercely. He has never darkened my door but once-nigh two months ago-when he took shelter from the rain.'

'He has been in your house two or three times a week-four

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