I am not exactly--one of the beasts of the field."

"Will you not trust me, then? I am not a foolish girl. I am a woman. You
may destroy an ideal, but there would be something left."

"I can tell you no more."

"Then it is to be good-bye?"

"If you say so!"

She turned slowly away. He watched her disappear. Afterwards, with a
curious sense of unreality, he remained quite still, his eyes still fixed
upon the portiere through which she had passed.




CHAPTER III

ONE OF THE "SUFFERERS"


Mannering kept no carriage, and he left Downing Street on foot. The
little house which he had taken furnished for the season was in the
somewhat less pretentious neighborhood of Portland Crescent, and as there
were no hansoms within hail he started to walk home. An attempt at a
short cut landed him presently in a neighborhood which he failed to
recognize. He paused, looking about him for some one from whom to inquire
the way. Then he at once realized what he had already more than once