“Very well, Nouna,” he said gently, “I won’t quarrel with you for wanting to have me before I am well off. I must leave you now, my darling, and I will write to your mother in the morning. Tell me her address.” “She is in Spain, now travelling about; we always write to her lawyers.” “Well, I will write through them.” He took a note-book from his pocket, and at her dictation wrote down the name and address of a firm of solicitors in Lincoln’s Inn. During the slight pause in their talk as he did this, Lauriston heard a sound upon the stairs, and looked up suddenly, convinced that some one had been listening. “What is it?” asked Nouna. “Somebody on the stairs,” whispered he. As he spoke, they both heard another light sound lower down; but when they looked into the dimly-lighted hall the eavesdropper had disappeared. “It was not Rahas; he treads so that you can hear him,” said Nouna. “It was a woman, I am sure,” said Lauriston. “A woman,” repeated Nouna. “And it was the end of a woman’s dress, a long black dress, I saw in Fanah’s room. I thought it must be a fancy, for when Rahas sent me to sleep to-day and made me see mamma she wore a long black dress.” “Rahas sent you to sleep! Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Lauriston rather sharply. “I had no time; I forgot about it.” “Tell me now all about it--at least, not here; come into the room.” Nouna stopped him, requiring to be kissed first. Then she let him open the sitting-room door, and the reason why Mrs. Ellis had not been disturbed by the proceedings outside was made manifest: the good lady was dozing in an armchair. She looked up with a start when they entered, and listened to Lauriston’s explanations and apologies for appearing so late in a rather apathetic and somnolent manner. She awoke, however, into the fullest life of which her vegetable nature was capable, when Nouna began to describe to her visitor the adventure of the afternoon. “You know,” she said, “that Rahas has been teasing me to marry him. He wanted me to keep all the bracelets out of his warehouse that he lent me to wear, and I told him I could buy some for myself if I wanted them. And at last yesterday I told him I would stay no longer in the same house with him, and I went out with Mrs. Ellis and we engaged new apartments.” “I’m sure I had no wish to go away,” broke in the elder lady plaintively. “The people here are most obliging, the rooms are clean, and nobody could be more civil or more respectful than Mr. Rahas and his uncle, Monsieur Fanah.” As the elder merchant spoke with a strong foreign accent, Mrs. Ellis thought him entitled to a French prefix to his name. “But there’s no doing anything with Nouna when she’s made up her mind, I regret to say.” At this point Nouna put her hand over her governess’s mouth, and went on with her story.