She raised her lips, and he strained her to him. He did not trust himself to say more, and he was grateful to her for her refusal to ask any further question. She kissed him, her eyes unopened. All that he knew was that she kissed him. Muriel lay quiet for some time. Then she got up and dressed and shuddered when she looked at herself in the mirror, and tightened her stays. Yet she dressed carefully before going out for a long walk. In the Tuileries Gardens she watched the gaily costumed maids and wet nurses with their little charges. She saw a woman of the working class, who was soon to be a mother. She looked away. She hailed a passing cab. "Drive me to the Boulevard Clichy," she said in French. The driver nodded. Muriel entered the cab. She had an important errand. Late in the afternoon she returned to the Chatham and left it with a suitcase in her hand. She told the unsurprised clerk at the _bureau_ that her rooms were to be held for her, but that she would be absent for five days. "If anyone calls," she said, "you will say that I have gone to Lyon with monsieur." XIV RUNAWAYS Stainton returned to Paris at the end of eight days in far better spirits than he had been in when he left. He had sold the mine at nearly his own figure, and he had what he considered reasons for believing that Dr. Boussingault had exaggerated his condition. Muriel's letters had, to be sure, been unsatisfactory; they had been brief and hurried; far from congratulating him on the success of his business affairs when he announced it, they made no mention of it; but then, he had never before received any letters from Muriel, and doubtless these represented her normal method of correspondence. He concluded that if they were below the normal, that was due to the cares of her condition. Their sitting-room at the Chatham was dim when he entered it, for the day was dull, and Muriel had several of the curtains drawn. She rose to meet him, and he embraced her warmly. "Hello," he said. "You understood my wire, didn't you? I didn't want to have to say 'howdy' to my sweetheart at the Boussingaults'. Oh, but it's good to be with you again!" "What wire?" asked Muriel. "Why, didn't you get it?" said Stainton. "The wire telling you to come here." "Oh," said Muriel, "that one? Yes." "You see," explained Jim as he kissed her again and again, "I wanted to have you right away all to myself; that's why I asked you to come back here." "Yes," said Muriel, "that was better. I didn't want to have you meet me before those strangers."