colour had gone from her face. As she stood in the corridor waiting for the jingle which was to take them over the bridge to Fermoy's, she looked like a ghost with wild eyes.
"Are you very tired, Miss Valliant?" said Blake, suddenly, beside her.
She gave a great start. He was still impassive. "Yes, very tired," she answered.
"Have you had a pleasant evening?" he asked, in the same tone.
"Yes, thank you," she answered. She lifted her eyes, which had not dared to meet his. They met them now, and something in the expression of his eased her pain. For there was pain, too, in his eyes, and a great yearning.
"Mr. Blake," she exclaimed involuntarily, and made a faint movement of her hand towards him. He put out his hand, and took hers. "Good-night, Miss Valliant," he said; "do you see that faint red streak in the sky, and do you know that in another hour it will be sunrise? Sleep well, and when you wake, don't" he hesitated, and pressed her hand as he relinquished it. "Try not to think too hardly of me."
The girl said not a word. She moved proudly past him.
"Ina, I am sure the carriage is there," she said, and at that moment Lord Horace came crossly to them. Lord Horace had taken a little more champagne than was good for him.
"What an infernal time you have been with your cloaks!" he said. "Come along, I can't see the thing, and we may wait here till Doomsday for it to fetch us. Come and get into the first jingle we can find that will take us to the ferry. We can walk the rest of the way."
A few minutes later Blake stood on the steps of the Clubhouse lighting his cigar. He was going to walk to the ferry. Lord Waveryng joined him.
"You are going to walk, I see. So am I, and our ways lie together as far as the turning to Government House."
The two men stepped out into the fresh scented air of the early morning. There were faint sounds of awakening birds and insects, and the greyness was so clear that the
