He vaulted through the window which he had already opened. The sound of wheels had died away, but he set his face at once towards the station, running with long easy strides, and gradually increasing his pace. Stephen Hurd, with his handkerchief to his mouth, and with all his nerves tingling with a sense of fierce excitement, looked behind him continually, but saw nothing. Long before he reached the station he had abandoned all fear of pursuit. Yet during the last half-mile Macheson was never more than a few yards from him, and on St. Pancras platform he was almost the first person he encountered. "Macheson! By God!" He almost dropped the coat he was carrying. He looked at Macheson as one might look at a visitor from Mars. It was not possible that this could be the man from whom he had fled. Macheson smiled at him grimly. "How did--how did you get here?" the young man faltered. "By the same train as you," Macheson answered. "How else? Where are you going to meet Letty?" Hurd answered with a curse. "Why the devil can't you mind your own business?" he demanded. "This is my business," Macheson answered. Then he turned abruptly round towards the hesitating figure of the girl who had suddenly paused in her swift approach. "It is my business to take you home, Letty," he said. "I have come to fetch you!" Letty looked appealingly towards Stephen Hurd. What she saw in his face, however, only terrified her. "Look here," he said thickly, "I've had almost enough of this. You can go to the devil--you and Miss Thorpe-Hatton, too! I won't allow any one to meddle in my private concerns. Come along, Letty." He would have led her away, but Macheson was not to be shaken off. He kept his place by the girl's side. "Letty," he said, "are you married to him?" "Not yet," she answered hesitatingly. "But we are going to be." "Where are you going to now?" She glanced towards Stephen. "I am going to take her away with me," he declared sullenly, "as soon as I can get my luggage on this cab." "Letty," Macheson said, "a few hours ago Miss Thorpe-Hatton offered Stephen Hurd a dowry for you of a thousand pounds, if he would promise to bring you back as his wife. He refused. He has not the slightest intention of making you his wife. I am sorry to have to speak so plainly, but you see we haven't much time for beating about the bush, have we? I want you to come with me to Berkeley Square. Mrs. Brown will look after you." She turned towards the young man piteously. "Stephen," she said, "tell Mr. Macheson that he is mistaken. We are going to be married, aren't we?" "Yes," he answered. "At least I always meant to marry you. What I shall do if every one starts bullying me I'm sure I don't know. Cut the whole lot of you, I think, and be off to the Colonies." "You don't mean that, Stephen," she begged. He pointed to the cab laden now with his luggage. "Will you get in or won't you, Letty?" he asked. She shrank back.