"How?" asked Felix, hoping against hope, yet guessing that Vronsky's answer would be: "They offer to befriend her--ask them to do so--accept their offer, until such time as you can keep the girl better than you can now." He saw the light fade out of the young man's sensitive face, and he sat down near him. "My son, she is too young to marry you and to rough it. But she cannot go about with you and me, unless you and she are married. You see that?" "I have been trying not to see it for the past hour," faltered Felix. Then Vronsky grew eloquent. There was no doubt that these kind English people had taken a fancy to the girl. Then he, Felix, with his miserable record and doubtful prospects, had no right to interfere. At Normansgrave she would be safe and happy. What he had to do was just to disappear from view until he had retrieved himself. He fought against argument, but he was contending against his own better sense all the time. By a most fortunate chance, the detective had missed the clew. And, as he had done so, Veronica was most probably safer at Normansgrave than anywhere else in England. It may as well be mentioned here, that Mr. Burnett, on arriving at Plymouth, heard of the embarkation of a couple answering with some exactitude to those of whom he was in search, in a cargo boat, for America. He asked his employers whether he should go to America in a fast steamer and intercept them on landing; but this was too great an expense for Rankin Leigh to undertake. The girl was gone. Well, he was relieved of the necessity for keeping her. He called off the pursuit, and there the matter rested. Felix naturally did not know this. But he could see that, if he were out of England, the risk of Veronica's being tracked was halved. But on one point he was obstinate. He would, at all costs, see the girl once more before he went away out of her life. How could he know how she felt about it? Suppose she did not wish to be left behind? If that were so, he vowed emphatically that he would take her with him, prudence or no prudence. Vronsky thought him mad, but sympathized with him in every fiber of his emotional being. Together they evolved a plan. Felix knew every nook and corner of the home which now sheltered his waif. He knew the place where it would be safest to meet, he knew the hour when it could be done with least risk.