"No; a Miss Macleod, who said that a much better position was in the market in a church where Miss Tucker had influential friends. She was sure that if Miss Tucker returned immediately to sing for the committee she could secure a thousand-dollar salary. We could do nothing but advise her to make the effort, you see." "Did she seem determined to go?" "No; she appeared a little undecided and timid. However, she said frankly that, though she had earned enough in England to pay her steamer passage to America, and a month's expenses afterward, she could not be certain of continuing to do so much through a London winter. 'If I only had a little more time to think it out,' she kept saying, 'but I haven't, so I must go!'" "Where is she now?" "At her lodgings. The bishop is detained in Bath and I am dining with friends in his stead. I thought you might go and take her to dinner at the Swan, so that she shouldn't be alone, and then bring her to the palace afterward--if--if all is well." "If I have any luck two churches will be lamenting her loss to-morrow morning," said Fergus gloomily; "but she wouldn't have consented to go if she cared anything about me!" "Nonsense, my dear boy! You were away. No self-respecting girl would wire you to come back. She was helpless even if she did care. Here we are! Shall I send a hansom back in half an hour?" "Twenty-five minutes will do it," Appleton answered briskly. "You are an angel, dear lady!" "Keep your blarney! I hope you'll need it all for somebody else to-night! Good fortune, dear boy!" VIII Appleton flung the contents of his portmanteau into his closet, rid himself of the dust of travel, made a quick change, and in less than forty minutes was at the door of Miss Tucker's lodgings. She had a little sitting-room on the first floor, and his loud rat-a-tat brought her to the door instead of the parlor-maid. At the unexpected sight of him she turned pale. "Why--why, I thought it was the luggage-man. Where did you come from?" she stammered. "From London, an hour ago. I met Mrs. Kennion on my way from the station." "Oh! Then she told you I am going home?" "Yes, she told me. How could you go to America without saying good-bye, Miss Tommy?" She flushed and looked perilously near tears. "I wrote to you this morning as soon as I had decided," she said. "I don't like to dart off in this way, you can imagine, but it's a question of must." He did not argue this with her; that was a bridge to be crossed when a better understanding had been reached; so, as if taking the journey as an inexorable fact, he said: "Come out and dine with me somewhere, and let us have a good talk." "I'm afraid I can't. I'm eating now on a tray in my sitting-room,"--and she waved a table napkin she was holding in her hand. "I am rather tired, and Miss Scattergood gave me some bacon and an egg from the nest."