"What will I do?" echoes Philip, his eyes flashing, and the colour rushing back in a flood to his ashen cheeks. "Find her--track her to the end of the earth. Everything in life has closed to me this day. I shall only exist for one motive--one unswerving aim. She thinks she has escaped me, but the world is small, and while Eleanor and I are both in the same hemisphere----" He pauses, for the room swims round. A look that Erminie can never forget crosses his face--a look of sublime love, checked by an expression of devilish rage and hatred. The two seem battling a moment for pre-eminence. Then he draws himself up to his full height, as if fighting for breath, and falls heavily upon the floor at Erminie's feet. Nelson's voice is heard calling her without. She rushes to the door with a wild cry: "Help--help! Philip is DEAD!" [Illustration: She rushes to the door with a wild cry.] CHAPTER XV. AH, FOR SOME RETREAT, DEEP IN YONDER SHINING ORIENT.--_Tennyson_. "Have you ever heard anything more of that poor Mr. Roche, whose wife deserted him?" asks Erminie's sister-in-law. "No," replies Mrs. Lane sadly. "We had one awful night when he came and told us the news, and fainted. I am so weak-minded, I thought he was dead immediately, and shrieked and tore my hair, and made quite a scene. I always jump at conclusions, it is so stupid of me. Nelson had a bad time of it that night. We sent for a doctor, but it was ages before we got him round, and then he seemed so strange and reticent that it frightened me still more. I thought he would lose his reason, he had just that look on his face. The following day he left us without a word. He just held both my hands very tightly, and said thank you with his eyes. Of course I made a fool of myself, and kissed him and cried over him like a child, which only made matters worse. I asked him what he intended doing, and he gasped 'Eleanor' under his breath, and rushed out of the house. We have never seen him since." "How strange! Then he has entirely vanished out of your lives? I thought he seemed strangely depressed at the theatre, the evening we went to the Savoy." "Ah! that was the night before." "Yes, he disappointed me. I had heard so much of your charming cousin, but I suppose the poor fellow had some inkling of it then." "I never expect to see him again. He was a very sensitive man, and the curious or condoling looks of acquaintances would have driven him mad. Nelson says he has left England, yet no one knows where he has gone. The nice home on Richmond Terrace is broken up, and I have practically lost a brother. It was a strange ending to his married career." "That is what comes of marrying beneath you. These people with low minds----" Erminie stops her sister-in-law with a deprecating gesture. She is staunch to Philip, and knows how it would pain him to hear these words. "I was fond of her," she says simply. "Let us talk of something else."