At eight o'clock I took leave of Tibbie after we had had a supper of cold meat. She rather missed her dinner, but assured me that she would soon get used to dining in the middle of the day. Then, after seeing that she was quite comfortable, and that the locks on the doors acted, I shook hands with her. "Good-bye, Willie dear," she laughed. "Come home early, won't you?" "Of course," I replied, echoing her laugh, and then as William Morton I went out to my work. Walking through Trafalgar Road I found myself in the Old Kent Road, and presently hailing a hansom I drove as far as Piccadilly Circus, where I alighted and went on foot to my rooms. As I entered Eric Domville came to the door of my sitting-room to meet me. He had been awaiting my return. I saw from his face that something had occurred. "Why, Eric--you?" I gasped. "What has happened?" He placed his forefinger to his lips, indicative of silence, and glanced behind me along the hall to the room wherein Budd had disappeared. Then, when I had passed into my own cosy den, he closed the door carefully. "Yes," he said, in a low, strained voice, "something has happened, old fellow--something serious. I've discovered a fact that puts an entirely new complexion upon the affair. You are both in gravest peril. Listen, and I'll explain." CHAPTER ELEVEN. SHOWS A WOMAN'S WEAKNESS. Eric, standing with his back to the mantelshelf, revealed to me a fact that was both extraordinary and startling. "After you'd left Ryhall yesterday," he said, "I was walking across the park to meet Cynthia, who'd gone out to pay a visit to that thin old parson's wife over at Waltham, when, quite unexpectedly, I came across Ellice standing talking to a rather badly-dressed young woman. She was in shabby black, with a brown straw hat trimmed with violets, and an old fur tippet around her neck. They were under a tree a little aside from the by-path that leads across to Waltham, and were speaking excitedly. I was walking on the grass and they did not hear me approach. Suddenly she made some statement which caused him to hesitate and think. Then he gave her some money hurriedly from his pocket, and after a further conversation they parted, she proceeding towards the high road, while Winsloe went in the direction of the house. I followed at a respectable distance, and that afternoon, when we assembled in the hall for tea, he announced that he had been suddenly recalled to town. In this I suspected something, so when he left by the seven-thirty-five express I followed him here." "Well?" I asked, looking straight into his face. "Well, he's in search of Tibbie." "Of Tibbie! What does he know?" "That woman who met him in the park told him something. She probably knew of your appointment." "Why?" "Because this morning he went to Harker's Hotel in Waterloo Road, and inquired for her. But you had very fortunately taken her away."