see you once, but I do not wish to see you again; will you pardon my
plain speaking, and release me?"

"I will pardon your plain speaking, but--" Her look said she would not
release him.

He seemed to understand it so, and smiled, but very bitterly. In
another moment he had bowed and gone, and she had returned to her
crowd of adoring sycophants.



CHAPTER VI

A BIT OF CALICO


It was about this time that I took up my residence in a sort of
lodging-house that occupied the opposite corner to that of Mr. Blake.
My room, as I took pains to have it, overlooked the avenue, and from
its windows I could easily watch the goings and comings of the
gentleman whose movements were daily becoming of more and more
interest to me. For set it down to caprice--and men are often as
capricious as women--or account for it as you will, his restlessness
at this period was truly remarkable. Not a day that he did not spend
his time in walking the streets, and that not in his usual aimless
gentlemanly fashion, but eagerly and with an intent gaze that roamed
here and there, like a bird seeking its prey. It would often be as
late as five o'clock before he came in, and if, as now frequently
happened, he did not have company to dinner, he was even known to