"_Hein_!" observed her _bon homme_, reflectively, from his seat in the corner, where he was salivating a stick of chocolate to pass the time while waiting anxiously for the _potage_ to be ready. "_C' n'est pas mon affaire_!" and he proceeded to suck his _chocolat_ calmly, which he had withdrawn for a moment from his mouth for the exigencies of conversation. Markworth walked on rapidly, Susan keeping up with difficulty by his side, through the town, which was now partly overhung by the sea-fog, up to the heights of Ingouville, where the air was clearer, and the lights shone out from the trim little rows of villa residences. The promenade was quite deserted; but Markworth proceeded without speaking a word until he had passed all the houses, and had reached a lonely part of the road, with the cliff above the footpath, and a precipitous descent on the other side nearest the town, below which was the zigzag street, up which they had come. Markworth now stopped suddenly, seeing that Susan was quite out of breath from the exertions she had made to keep up with him. "At last," he said, "I can speak to you quietly;" and he paused a second, as if to think over his words. He did not know that Nemesis was close behind him, for it was nearly dark: the thud of the sea in the distance, splashing against the pier, and the sound of the waters of the Seine at their embouchure, mingling with the tide, drowned even the sound of a passing footstep. It was a crisis in Markworth's fate. "Susan," he said, abruptly, "I have to leave you. I have to go away for a long time, and I shall send you back to-morrow to your people in England." He spoke rapidly. To do him justice, he knew what a pang it would be to the poor girl; but he could not possibly take her with him, so he was anxious to get the "scene," as he called it, over as quickly as he could. "Oh, Allynne! Allynne!" she cried out, piteously; "you are not going to leave me! I shall die if I go back there!" And she flung her arms round his neck, as if to hold him for ever. He was her life, her all! The avenger was close behind. "Don't be so foolish, Susan!" Markworth said, in a half-angry, half-coaxing manner. "I'm not going to leave you now, child. I'm talking about to-morrow. I've been away before, and I can't be with you always." And he tried to unclasp her hands from his neck. "Oh, Allynne! I can't go back there! I shall die! Take my money, everything I've got; but do let me stay with you--don't send me back there!" she sobbed out in broken accents. The allusion to the money, and her entreaties seemed to madden him. "Have done, girl! Idiot!" he said, roughly, tearing away her hands with violence, and throwing her from him. The poor girl started back as pale as death, as if she had been shot.