"He _looks_ a very quiet, steady--Really, one might take him for rather a nice old man." Percival stared blankly at her, and then began to laugh: "Well, Miss Lisle, I never heard a reputation blighted so completely by a complimentary sentence before." Judith blushed a little: "But he isn't very nice, is he?" "I don't know about _nice_. I should say he was as steady and harmless an old fellow as ever lived. What _do_ you mean?" "Well," Judith hesitated, "of course one has no business to judge any one without really knowing; but his staying out so late at night--" "'So late at night?'" Percival repeated. "I suppose he has a latch-key generally. But one or two nights I am sure Miss Bryant sat up to let him in. I heard them whispering: at least, I heard her. I don't think that girl could even whisper quietly." "But there must be some mistake. Fordham comes in quite early, and very often he doesn't go out at all in the evening." "He goes out later," said Judith. "Indeed, no. I could time all his movements. His room is next to mine, and the wall is not so thick as I could wish. He snores sometimes." "But--" she persisted, looking scared and white, yet what was Fordham to her?--"but I have heard him over and over again, Mr. Thorne. I can't be mistaken." Percival was disconcerted too. He looked at the carpet, at his slippered feet--at anything but her face: "You have heard some one, I suppose: I don't know who comes in late. Not poor old Fordham." He heard Emma on the stairs, and hurried to meet her. Coming back with his boots in his hand, he found Judith standing exactly as he had left her. "I'm sure I beg Mr. Fordham's pardon," she said with a smile. "One does make curious mistakes, certainly. That nice-looking old man!" And nodding farewell to young Thorne, she went away. He did not see her again for two days, though he watched anxiously for her. Bertie came in and out, and was much as usual. On the third evening, as Percival was going up stairs, she called after him: "Mr. Thorne." He turned eagerly. "You lent Bertie some money a day or two since?" Something in her voice or her look made Percival sure that Lisle had borrowed and spent it without her knowledge, and that it was a trouble to her. After all, what did it matter? He would sell his watch and pay Mrs. Bryant. He could not deny Bertie's debt, since she had found it out, but he could make light of it. So he nodded: "Yes, by the the way, I believe I did: he hadn't his purse or something." This in a tone of airy indifference. "Tell me how much it was, please, and I'll pay it back." Then he saw that her purse was open in her hand. "Oh, it doesn't matter," Percival said: "don't pay me off in such a quick, business-like way, Miss Lisle. I'm not the milkman, nor yet the washing. Bertie will settle with me one of these days." "Please tell me, Mr. Thorne. I mean to pay it: I must." "Well, I'll ask him about it, then." "_You_ know," with a look of reproach and pleading.