But on the threshold of the old house itself they stood for a moment.

'Look back upon it, Gabrielle,' Fielding said. "It was here, just on this spot, I saw you for the first time; but I don't want ever to see it again. To-day I asked you to look in on my old place and consecrate it. It has been desecrated since then; and I don't wish ever to see it again.'

'Still, I shall always love it,' said Gabrielle, because I first saw you there. I think I must have loved you even that first time-if I had only known.'

"Then and now?'

'Ah! now, of course, I do know it. But there is nothing wonderful in that. It was strange, though— was it not, my friend?-that we should both have felt so suddenly drawn towards each other that very first time?'

6

And you trust me always?' His voice had a tremor in it.

'Only try me,' was Gabrielle's quiet answer.

Ah,' he said cheerily, 'you are a companion to go tiger-hunting with. The tiger has appeared, Gabrielle, and you are not inclined to run away. Come

shall we walk once or twice round this old square, in memory of the day when we walked round it before, and you asked me about poor Phil Vanthorpe, and you told me you were resolved to bring Wilberforce and myself together again?'

'Yes; and I told you that I would always be a friend to my friend.'

'You did.'

They walked round the little square, keeping on the strip of flags near the railings. They walked for a while without speaking. Gabrielle had not asked Fielding one single question about Paulina and her story. He understood her silence. She disdained to say a word which might even suggest that she needed any assurance of Paulina's falsehood from him.

CHAPTER VII.

'PERCHANCE, IAGO, I WILL NE'ER GO HOME.'

ROBERT CHARLTON had not fallen when Fielding, giving way to that one burst of temper, flung him aside. He only staggered a little and nearly came against Janet, who shrank from him and drew herself away into a corner of the room and sat in silence. She had heard his words to Fielding, and she despised him for them. She might have been in terror for herself. It was not easy to count on what a man like Robert might do at such a moment, and now she was alone with him. But somehow, she did not think about her personal safety; she had hardly any sense of fear. It did not seem to matter much what happened to her or to him now. They never could be the same; she never could love him any more. He had shown himself basely ungrateful to Gabrielle; he had helped that