roughly than he in tended.

"I wanted to see you, I passed your lodgings and saw there was no
light in the windows, else I should have asked for you."

She spoke in so strange a voice, with such show of agitation, that
Hilliard stood gazing at her till she again broke silence,

"Have you been waiting here for me?"

"Yes. Patty told me you weren't back."

"Why did you come?"

"Why do I ever come to meet you?"

"We can't talk here," said Eve, turning away. "Come into a quieter
place."

They walked in silence to the foot of High Street, and there turned
aside into the shadowed solitude of Mornington Crescent. Eve checked
her steps and said abruptly--

"I want to ask you for something."

"What is it?"

"Now that it comes to saying it, I--I'm afraid. And yet if I had
asked you that evening when we were at the restaurant----"