They were dashing off a rollicking folk-song indoors. When it was finished there came a burst of laughter and the sharp spat of applauding hands, and shouts of approbation. The sounds seemed seared upon my brain. I rose and ran down the path toward the waiting machine. There in the darkness I buried my shamed face in my hands and prayed for the tears that would not come. It seemed hours before I heard Von Gerhard’s firm, quick tread upon the gravel path. He moved about the machine, adjusting this and that, then took his place at the wheel without a word. We glided out upon the smooth white road. All the loveliness of the night seemed to have vanished. Only the ugly, distorted shadows remained. The terror of uncertainty gripped me. I could not endure the sight of Von Gerhard’s stern, set face. I grasped his arm suddenly so that the machine veered and darted across the road. With a mighty wrench Von Gerhard righted it. He stopped the machine at the road-side. “Careful, Kindchen,” he said, gravely. “Ernst,” I said, and my breath came quickly, chokingly, as though I had been running fast, “Ernst, I can’t do it. I’m not big enough. I can’t. I hate him, I tell you, I hate him! My life is my own. I’ve made it what it is, in the face of a hundred temptations; in spite of a hundred pitfalls. I can’t lay it down again for Peter Orme to trample. Ernst, if you love me, take me away now. To Vienna—anywhere—only don’t ask me to take up my life with him again. I can’t—I can’t—” “Love you?” repeated Ernst, slowly, “yes. Too well—” “Too well—” “Yes, too well for that, Gott sei dank, small one. Too well for that.” CHAPTER XVIII. PETER ORME A man’s figure rose from the shadows of the porch and came forward to meet us as we swung up to the curbing. I stifled a scream in my throat. As I shrank back into the seat I heard the quick intake of Von Gerhard’s breath as he leaned forward to peer into the darkness. A sick dread came upon me. “Sa-a-ay, girl,” drawled the man’s voice, with a familiar little cackling laugh in it, “sa-a-ay, girl, the policeman on th’ beat’s got me spotted for a suspicious character. I been hoofin’ it up an’ down this block like a distracted mamma waitin’ for her daughter t’ come home from a boat ride.” “Blackie! It’s only you!” “Thanks, flatterer,” simpered Blackie, coming to the edge of the walk as I stepped from the automobile. “Was you expectin’ the landlady?” “I don’t know just whom I expected. I—I’m nervous, I think, and you startled me. Dr. Von Gerhard was taken back for a moment, weren’t you, Doctor?” Von Gerhard laughed ruefully. “Frankly, yes. It is not early. And visitors at this hour—” “What in the world is it, Blackie?” I put in. “Don’t tell me that Norberg has been seized with one of his fiendish inspirations at this time of night.” Blackie struck a match and held it for an instant so that the flare of it illuminated his face as he lighted his cigarette. There was no laughter in the deep-set black eyes.