small hand-bag slung across her shoulder, laughing and dimpling, and
well aware of the admiring glances that were cast at her. It was a
relief to Maurice that she was going away for a time; his feeling of
responsibility with regard to her had not flagged, and he had
made a point of seeing her more often, and of knowing more of her
movements than before. As, however, he had not observed anything
further to disturb him, his suspicions were on the verge of
subsiding--as suspicions have a way of doing when we wish them to--and
in the last day or two, he had begun to feel much less sure, and to
wonder if, after all, he had not been mistaken.

"I shall miss you, Morry. I almost wish I were not going," said Ephie,
and this was not untrue, in spite of the pretty new dresses her trunks
contained. "Say, I don't believe I shall enjoy myself one bit. You
will write, Morry, won't you, and tell me what goes on? All the news
you hear and who you see and everything."----

"Be sure you write," said Madeleine, too, when he saw her off early in
the morning to Berlin, where she was to meet her English charges.
"Christiania, POSTE RESTANTE, till the first, and then Bergen. 'FROKEN
WADE,' don't forget."

The train started; her handkerchief fluttered from the window until
the carriage was out of sight.

Maurice was alone; every one he knew disappeared, even Furst, who had
obtained a holiday engagement in a villa near Dresden. An odd
stillness reigned in the BRAUSTRASSE and its neighbourhood; from
houses which had hitherto been clangrous with musical noises, not a
sound issued. Familiar rooms and lodgings were either closely