"Yet you are afraid----"

"It's for your sake. You must be free for the next year or two. I
shall be glad to get to work again. I am well and strong and
cheerful."

Her eyes drew him with the temptation he had ever yet resisted. Eve
did not refuse her lips.

"You must write to Patty," she said, when they were at the place of
parting. "I shall have her new address in a day or two."

"Yes, I will write to her."



CHAPTER XVIII


By the end of November Hilliard was well at work in the office of
Messrs. Birching, encouraged by his progress and looking forward as
hopefully as a not very sanguine temperament would allow. He lived
penuriously, and toiled at professional study night as well as day.
Now and then he passed an evening with Robert Narramore, who had
moved to cozy bachelor quarters a little distance out of town, in
the Halesowen direction. Once a week, generally on Saturday, he saw
Eve. Other society he had none, nor greatly desired any.

But Eve had as yet found no employment. Good fortune in this respect
seemed to have deserted her, and at her meetings with Hilliard she