of the owner, who is away.'

'Then I have been staying quite near you, Miss Bencomb. My father's is
a comparatively humble residence hard by.'

'But he could afford a much bigger one if he chose.'

'You have heard so? I don't know. He doesn't tell me much of his
affairs.'

'My father,' she burst out suddenly, 'is always scolding me for my
extravagance! And he has been doing it to-day more than ever. He said
I go shopping in town to simply a diabolical extent, and exceed my
allowance!'

'Was that this evening?'

'Yes. And then it reached such a storm of passion between us that I
pretended to retire to my room for the rest of the evening, but I
slipped out; and I am never going back home again.'

'What will you do?'

'I shall go first to my aunt in London; and if she won't have me, I'll
work for a living. I have left my father for ever! What I should have
done if I had not met you I cannot tell--I must have walked all the way
to London, I suppose. Now I shall take the train as soon as I reach
the mainland.'

'If you ever do in this hurricane.'