"Yes, yes," she cried; "I will. I am innocent, I am indeed. But, oh, it is horrible! I will stay away. I will see him no more. But you-- that man--he has us in his power." "I beg your pardon," said a soft voice; "I think I must have left my gloves in here. Yes, there they are!" and Paul Montaigne quietly crossed the room, took a pair of gloves from a chair, and then smiled and went softly out. The cousins gazed in each other's eyes, motionless, till they heard the closing of the front door. "Oh, Marie," whispered Ruth, in an awe-stricken way, "he must have heard every word you said!" And Marie echoed hoarsely, "Every word!" Mr Montaigne allowed a couple of days to elapse before he called again in Saint James's, and then, serious man as he was, he swore, for the shutters were closed: the family was out of town. It was no unusual time for anyone to go, for, as he stood there hesitating on the step, a slatternly-looking girl was making the streets ring with her minor-pitched cry of "Sixteen branches a penny--new lavender; sixteen branches a penny." It was well on in August, and fashionable London was taking wing. "Clever woman!" thought Montaigne: "this is her move; but I can mate her when I please." He rang, and a woman-servant answered the bell. "His lordship is out of town," the woman said. "At his country seat?" said Montaigne at haphazard. "Oh dear no, sir! his lordship has taken my lady and Miss Allerton on the Continong, and they are not coming back for some time. Mr Harvey, his lordship's agent, will send on all letters." "Thank you. I am very much obliged," said Montaigne with his blandest smile; and he raised his hat and went away smiling, cursing Marie in his heart. "`All comes to the man who waits,'" he thought. Volume 3, Chapter XI. RUTH'S WORK UNDONE. The Continental trip extended to months, after which there were a few visits, so that it was well into the next season before they were back at the house in Saint James's, and after their return Marie devoted herself to Ruth, hoping that Montaigne would not show himself again, though they both trembled at the thought of his coming. Still, he did not show himself, and matters went on so happily and well that Ruth began to hope that Marie's love for Glen was dead, when, in an evil hour, and, as Marie said, to fulfil a social duty, they called upon Lady Anna Maria Morton, meeting Lady Littletown there; when that lady insisted upon their dining with her at her town house, and it was next to impossible to refuse. Lady Littletown was a match-maker at heart, and she always looked upon her conservatory, with its brilliant flowers, as her greatest aid in such matters. Hence it was that her ladyship took care to have a conservatory wherever she lived. She had taken a handsome house in South Kensington for a short season, one that was admirably furnished in this respect, though far from being equal to Mr Elbraham's glass palace. Still, it was enough.