straight to her postal subordinate, whom some one else had released. He
had in his hand all this while neither letters nor telegrams, and now
that he was close to her--for she was close to the counter-clerk--it
brought her heart into her mouth merely to see him look at her neighbour
and open his lips. She was too nervous to bear it. He asked for a Post-
Office Guide, and the young man whipped out a new one; whereupon he said
he wished not to purchase, but only to consult one a moment; with which,
the copy kept on loan being produced, he once more wandered off.

What was he doing to her? What did he want of her? Well, it was just
the aggravation of his "See here!" She felt at this moment strangely and
portentously afraid of him--had in her ears the hum of a sense that,
should it come to that kind of tension, she must fly on the spot to Chalk
Farm. Mixed with her dread and with her reflexion was the idea that, if
he wanted her so much as he seemed to show, it might be after all simply
to do for him the "anything" she had promised, the "everything" she had
thought it so fine to bring out to Mr. Mudge. He might want her to help
him, might have some particular appeal; though indeed his manner didn't
denote that--denoted on the contrary an embarrassment, an indecision,
something of a desire not so much to be helped as to be treated rather
more nicely than she had treated him the other time. Yes, he considered
quite probably that he had help rather to offer than to ask for. Still,
none the less, when he again saw her free he continued to keep away from
her; when he came back with his thumbed Guide it was Mr. Buckton he
caught--it was from Mr. Buckton he obtained half-a-crown's-worth of
stamps.

After asking for the stamps he asked, quite as a second thought, for a
postal-order for ten shillings. What did he want with so many stamps
when he wrote so few letters? How could he enclose a postal-order in a